Tourism Holding Its Own Despite Flooding in Vanderhoof

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Aerial view of Vanderhoof flooding        (photo courtesty of Dr. Chun Wong)

Vanderhoof’s Riverside Park and the community’s trail system are huge draws and the Manager of the local Chamber of Commerce says staff are having to get creative in where they direct tourists in light of the ongoing flood situation. 

The red roof surrounded by water in the middle of the above picture is the viewing tower in the park, but Michelle Fehr says, fortunately from a tourism perspective, the flooding is mainly impacting residential areas.

She says the tourism season started out strong and earlier than usual for Vanderhoof, took a bit of a hit with the flooding to the northwest earlier this month, and the subsequent road closure, but has picked up again and seems to be maintaining that increase, despite the local water troubles.

In fact, Fehr says there has been an unexpected positive from coverage of the flood situation in Vanderhoof.  “For people in tourism - such as resorts, different things like that - I think there’s been a lot of  searches over the internet looking for this place that is being flooded and impacted," she says.  "Other information is going out, as well, the better stuff – the ’what’s available’, what are the resources here, what is there for a tourist coming to this area, and even down to re-location information."

Fehr points out that many visitors to the region come from Europe to do circle tours - either to Prince Rupert and Vancouver Island, or up to Alaska - and planned their vacations 5-8 years ago, and, she says, while those visitors are aware ’something is going on’, it doesn’t dissuade them from coming. (picture at left courtesy of Dr. Wong)

However, she admits the sustained flooding being anticipated at this point could have an affect on final tourism numbers for the season.  

If the park, trail system and Cheslatta Falls remain impacted over the next month or so, Fehr says, "Those areas give us 3 to 4 weeks of less usage, plus clean up, so I would suspect there’s going to be some sort of implication, but it still remains to be seen exactly what that will be.”  But she says, for now, tourism figures aren’t being dampened by the record run-off through the Nechako River.

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