Businesses in Port Angeles have dusted off the welcome mat and added a financial incentive to attract Canadian visitors to coincide with the return of Black Ball’s Coho car ferry next week.
More than 30 businesses in the Washington state port city will accept the Canadian dollar at par through March and April to offset the strength of the U.S. dollar to the loonie.
“The Vancouver Island market has always been a good one for us on the Olympic Peninsula, but any time you are 30 per cent behind the curve, people start to think twice about taking off on a trip,” said Marsha Massey, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau.
“We know our Canadian visitors are down and we are pretty sure that’s related to the exchange rate.”
The Canadian dollar, which has shown some improvement this week, closed up 0.15 of a U.S. cent to 74 cents US Friday. The currency improved almost a cent and a half over the past week.
“We really wanted to get a jump on the season and let our friends in Canada know we love them and want them to come back,” said Massey. She pegged the impact of Canadian spending in the area at between 15 and 20 per cent of the economy.
The promotion, called “Go Loonie! Olympic Peninsula at Par!” starts the day after Black Ball’s Coho car ferry returns to service Monday after two months.
The ferry, which carries about 400,000 passengers and 127,000 vehicles between Victoria and Port Angeles each year, was retrofitted and work started on replacing the wharf, dock and car ramp in Victoria.
The ferry is scheduled to return with an 8:20 a.m. and 2 p.m. departure from Port Angeles on Monday. Its first departures from Victoria are at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The at-par promotion, the brainchild of Robert Utz, general manager of the Red Lion Hotel in Port Angeles, seeks to lure more people coming off the ferry to stop, shop and stay awhile.
“The Coho is huge, it’s a big lifeline for this community,” he said. “I don’t want to imagine what Port Angeles would be without that.”
Ryan Malane, co-owner of Black Ball, said there’s been a noticeable drop-off in Canadians and other travellers stopping as they travel through Port Angeles to places such as Seattle, Oregon and California.
“They are no longer staying and spending as they had in years past,” Malane said. He believes the exchange rate may have cut Canadian spending in Port Angeles by as much as 20 per cent over the past year.
“This [promotion] is a great introduction to the season and I’m happy to see so many businesses come together to attract Canadians. It really does show they can see the impact Canadians have on the local economy and they don’t want to lose that,” Malane said.
Utz saw the promotion first hand when he was working in a hotel in Bellevue years ago, when the loonie was also at a 30 per cent disadvantage. He said this should get people travelling again.
He said Canadian spending can account for between 25 and 50 per cent of his hotel’s revenue depending on the time of year.
Edna Petersen, who owns Necessities and Temptations department store, said she saw the difference in spending patterns last year when the loonie started to slide.
“It was like we were having a reverse sale, and it’s almost 30 per cent,” she said. “That’s a big hit for someone who wants to come from Canada to visit for a weekend.”
Petersen said last year she also took Canadian money at par, for a while, but it got to the point she “couldn’t do it across the board anymore.”
“But this [promotion] is easy for me to do, we will take Canadian money at par for all items except sale items,” she said.
There are now 36 businesses involved, including hotels and lodges, restaurants, retail operations and activities. A full list of participating businesses is at getofftherock.com.
