With a trade war escalating between Canada and the United States, some Canadians are increasingly interested in taking their vacations domestically.
That’s drawn calls from some quarters for Canadian airlines to lower prices, but according to one expert that’s easier said than done.
There’s already plenty of interest in boosting domestic tourism.
Kelowna’s Big White ski resort says it noticed a significant bump in people signing up for season passes far earlier than in years past.
“What we found out, the reason they were coming to Big White earlier is they couldn’t afford to go back to the United States,” said Michael J. Ballingall, senior vice-president of marketing at Big White Ski Resort.
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With a weak Canadian dollar and, in some cases, a boycott of the U.S. amid looming tariffs destinations like Big White are looking more attractive to many Canadians who are looking to travel within the country.
But it’s not cheap. In fact, travelling throughout Canada can be far more costly than travelling out of the country.
According to airline expert Jim Scott, that’s not the airlines’ fault.
“Government policy has a lot to do with why airfares are more expensive in Canada,” he told Global News.
“The government has made a policy that they are going to recover all their costs and they do that through subsidiaries like Nav Canada that are their air traffic control agency.”
It’s a much different model than other countries, like the U.S., where air travel is considered part of the transportation infrastructure and in many ways subsidized.
“Like roads and bridges, and the government has a role to play to pay for certain aspects of that, where in Canada it is simply on a cost recovery basis,” Scott said. “So the passenger will pay for every part of that flight.”
Bringing those costs down, according to Scott, will take public pressure.
“It’s going to be the consumer that will get tired of it and they are the ones that are going to have to, you know, ask that some of their tax money goes into the transportation network of flying.”
It’s something those in the tourism sector, like Ballingal who also sits on the board of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, want to see.
“If we can bring the ticket price down by bringing those regulations down, Canada will absolutely benefit from that because we have proven when the seat sales are on, we travel within Canada.”
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