With bookings up, Marine Atlantic hopes to chip in and cash in on tourism season

In what might be a sign that Newfoundland and Labrador is beginning to shake off the COVID-19 pandemic and return to normal living, Marine Atlantic says 2022 bookings are up more than tenfold over last year and are more than double a normal pre-pandemic year.

Darrell Mercer, the ferry service's corporate communications manager, told CBC News on Wednesdayabout 8,000 ferry bookings were made between Jan. 1 and March 7 for the upcoming summer season, compared with fewer than600 bookings during the same time period in 2021.

"We're already seeing significant interest in tourism travel this year," said Mercer.

"Even when we go back to 2019 in a pre-COVID period there was approximately 3,300 bookings. So we're over double of what we did in a normal year."

Many of the bookings had been made before Marine Atlantic started offering a discount on ferry passages between May 15 and June 30, to help boost traffic ahead of the peak tourism season, so even more bookings could be on the way. Mercer said the goal is to generate new traffic and opportunities for Marine Atlanticwhile helping with the province's 2022 tourism campaign, which includes a Come Home Year to encourage Newfoundland and Labrador expats to visit.

"We're very optimistic when we see these very large booking numbers so early in the year," he said.

"[People are] comfortabletravelling again and our hope, above everything else, is that we'll return to some type of normal travel season. That's what's been missing for the last couple of years."

On the rise

Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador which represents roughly2,700 hard-hit tourism operators in the province says the discount is timely.

The industry has been devastated byCOVID-19with varying travel and public health restrictions deterring and especially early in the pandemic outright preventing travel to the province.

Brenda O'Reilly, the group's chair, said discounts like Marine Atlantic'swill help encourage visits to the province.

"Tourism is a vital part of the Newfoundland and Labrador economy; a robust and thriving tourism industry provides more prosperity to the province,"O'Reilly said in a media release Tuesday.

Travel agents in Newfoundland and Labrador have barely held on for the last two years, according toDerek Winsor, anagent with E&B Travel Service in St. John's.

Winsor said his family was able to weather the storm but others weren't as fortunate. A lot of agents have gotten out of the business, he said something he considered himself.

"Last fall, I had some very difficult times and I really considered, 'Should I stay in the business?'"

With last month's announcementthat the province would bedropping its remaining public health mandates, Winsor said his phone started ringing again.

People are still being cautious, he said,as different jurisdictions are at different levels of public health security.But, he said, he hopes customers will start booking trips again soon. But he also offers some advice.

"Make sure that whatever you do, you have an insurance policy that includes a COVID rider on it and a 'cancel for any reason' rider on it to protect whatever you're going to do, just in case there's another wave," he said.

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