BANFF – The province’s premiere tourism destination was a ghost town in spring when the global COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of Alberta’s economy.
The mountain community declared a state of emergency, visitors were actively discouraged from coming with roadblocks at both entrances to town set up to protect residents and prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“We hadn’t done anything like that in our history and the results were obvious – visitation hit rock bottom,” said Darren Enns, the Town of Banff’s director of planning and development.
“You’d be lucky to find a single person on the street back in May and words like ‘ghost town’ would not be out of line in qualifying what our community looked like.”
And the numbers didn’t lie.
Vehicle volumes dropped 66 per cent in May alone, hotel occupancy hovered around two to three per cent, and the unemployment rate was reported to be as high as 85 per cent.
Along with retailers and other hotels, the historic Banff Springs Hotel closed its doors for the first time since the second world war to support local efforts to halt the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
“There was serious and real social costs to all this,” Enns said.
While there were no plans to attempt to draw back Banff’s usual four million-plus annual tourists, talk turned to ways to safely reopen Banff as the provincial government slowly began to relaunch Alberta’s economy in mid-May.
In consultation with the tourism industry, council gave the green light to a proposal to turn the 100 and 200 blocks of Banff Avenue and portion of Caribou Street into a pedestrian zone – and it was done 11 days after that May 25 decision.
The reasons were twofold: to create more space for pedestrians to physically distance and move safely around the shopping zone and to assist struggling local businesses beginning to reopen their doors for the first time in weeks and weeks.
Leslie Bruce, president and CEO of Banff Lake Louise Tourism (BLLT), said the pedestrian zone achieved what it set out to do.
“Visitors told us the pedestrian zone was an incredibly important part of their decision to come to Banff, not only once, but more than once,” she said.
“People who haven’t come in years told us that it made them feel safe, and it was a new experience, a reason for them to come and re-explore.”
In addition, Banff’s pedestrian zone was seen as a competitive edge over other resort communities in Western Canada this summer.
“What I learned in talking to other colleagues in places like Whistler, Kelowna, Tofino, is we were considered as having an advantage with the pedestrian zone,” Bruce said.
“We had something really new and interesting to not only keep people safe, but to offer people who have come many times before a reason to come again.”
Bruce said Destination Canada – the country’s national tourism marketing organization – described Banff and Lake Louse as a bright spot in terms of tourism across the country.
She said hotel occupancy sat in the high 40 per cent to low- to mid-50 per cent range throughout summer, compared to larger centres like Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto – the so-called engines of the tourism economy – at five to nine per cent.
“It is absolutely clear that we are a destination that did benefit from reopening and doing it well and doing it safety,” Bruce said.
“I can say with strong confidence that we were perceived as one of the brightest lights in the country.”
Based on all indications, BLLT believes physical distancing will remain a requirement well into 2021 to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
With a loss of international tourists and uncertainty on when the Canada-U.S. border will reopen, Bruce said Banff and Lake Louise will need to continue to rely on regional visitors to support the local economy and keep businesses open.
“We know we will have to continue to make people feel safe and to continue offering them new and novel experiences to engage them,” she said.
“We know this same audience is really the bridge to our next summer that our business community so desperately needs in order to ensure viability.”
Public opinion surveys conducted by Banff and Lake Louise Tourism and Jan and Adam Waterous’ Liricon Capital showed visitors overwhelmingly supported the pedestrian zone this summer.
One survey indicated 92 per cent of visitors believed the pedestrian zone enhanced Banff’s image and 84 per cent reported they felt safer and less crowded given the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 97 per cent of visitors would like to see the pedestrian zone return as a permanent summer feature; 94 per cent would like to see it open for festivals; and 55 per cent want it to become a year-round attraction.
“Banff was born ready for what we all did this past summer,” said Jan Waterous, of Liricon Capital, who has a vision for a car-free Banff.
Many Banff businesses are calling on the Town of Banff to implement the downtown pedestrian zone again next summer. Others offer cautious support with caveats to make sure it’s fair to all businesses.
One of the more contentious issues associated with the pedestrian zone was the allocation of commercial space on the street.
Robert McKercher of Cascade Development Inc. said he would support the pedestrian zone next year if the two south-bound lanes of the 300 block of Banff Avenue in front of the Cascade Mall were also closed to traffic.
He said many businesses were concerned that the advantage was given to ground level restaurants, but wants to see it extended to all businesses, including those above and below-grade.
“There needs to be fair treatment to all Banff businesses,” McKercher said.
Craig Paton, managing partner of The Elk and Oarsman and St. James’s Gate, said a serious competitive advantage was given to some businesses at the expense of others.
“This was created in a time when other businesses in town were devastated from the construction on Bear and Wolf Street and the pandemic,” he said in a letter to council.
“Any glimmer of hope of a small amount of business off Banff Avenue was eliminated by providing selected Banff Avenue businesses with the ‘A’ location’s free restaurant seats.”
Shawn Rapley, general manager of Tony Roma’s, said he supports the pedestrian zone, but with some adjustments.
He said the space allocation should be limited to the same length of a business frontage and not include a use of a neighbours’ frontage, adding that all businesses should have access to the same amount of road space.
“There was a large inequity in opportunity with just one lane while competing with the two-lane patios,” Rapley said, noting there should be also clear design guidelines that standardize the look and feel throughout the street.
Brett Ireland, co-founder of Banff Ave. Brewing Co., voiced strong support for the pedestrian zone, saying the attraction resulted in jobs and sales in this challenging COVID-19 pandemic.
“These are jobs that would not otherwise have existed due to the health risk mitigations,” he said.
Ireland said many estimates forecast a return to pre-COVID activity out into 2024.
Although vehicle volumes and visitation ended up being higher than anticipated at the start of summer, Ireland said the reality for most Banff businesses was sales decreases in the 60 per cent range.
“This, in turn, meant a decrease in staffing levels around 50 per cent compared to summer 2019, and so combined, this has obviously had a great impact on the community,” he said.
Looking ahead to next year, Ireland wants the Town of Banff to commit to a similar program with the pedestrian zone.
“That would provide confidence to businesses as they manage through to the next summer season,” he said.
Pete Woods, general manager of SkiBig3, voiced support for continuing the pedestrian zone into future years from the Victoria May long weekend through to Thanksgiving, as well as seasonal closures such as during the Christmas holidays.
“For my business, we would not have seen the summer we had without having Banff Avenue closed for pedestrians,” he said.
“The safety and spacing is not going away; we still have a long road ahead of us and we need to continue to provide a safe environment that protects Banff’s brand and continues to build trust of visitors.”
Woods also recommended the Town of Banff explore a fee structure for commercial use of public space that would allow the broader community to share in that financial benefit.
“We also suggest creating a system that is fair and equitable in terms of the street space allocation – and getting feedback from all the businesses,” he said.
According to the Town of Banff’s planning and development department, almost every business wanted a commercial presence on the street to help overcome financial struggles as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Enns said it would have been impossible to accommodate every Banff restaurant or retailer within the two-block pedestrian zone.
“When I say everyone, I mean everyone – everyone on Banff Avenue, everyone on Bear Street. Businesses that weren’t even in Banff were asking us to be on Banff Avenue – OCAs, Canmore,” said Enns.
“Of course, to think that we’re gong to allocate space to everyone is an impossibility.”
In order to allocate the much coveted commercial space amongst businesses, administration took guidance from the municipality’s existing sidewalk seating policy.
In the case of the pedestrian zone, latitude was given to restaurants wanting to make use of adjacent businesses’ frontage. When this was requested, Town of Banff administration required written consent of the neighbouring at-grade business and landlord.
High profile examples of this were The Radiant restaurant and Park Distillery, which both occupied adjacent business frontages for their outdoor restaurant seating.
“Even though we received a number of complaints about Park, they occupied the same amount of space as the Radiant – 165 square metres,” Enns said.
A second principle in allocating space was that no outdoor seating area, when combined with the capacity of indoor space, exceed the total seating capacity that existed pre-COVID.
“In other words, an outdoor seating area for a restaurant wouldn’t allow for a restaurant to expand,” said Enns, adding that many restaurants were down 30 to 40 per cent of capacity as a result of COVID restrictions.
A third and final principle was that no basement or second-storey business which lacked frontage could use the public street, nor was space available for businesses outside the closure area.
However, three sites were created to accommodate Bear Street bike rental businesses to use as retail locations and a queue to visit the Bear Street outlets–- a commitment made to those businesses before Bear Street construction.
“This is consistent with what we told Bear Street businesses back in November and December that we would try to find alternate space for them due to Bear Street construction,” said Enns.
Tents for restaurants, commonly referred to as circus tents, also caused some angst among some businesses that felt they were advantageous to some commercial operators over others.
Enns said tents allowed restaurants to manage in bad weather, particularly given that patrons may not be able to move inside due to reduced capacity requirements because of COVID-19 restrictions.
That said, Enns said the tents did come with some challenges, such as reduced access to light and surrounding spectacular views and making it more difficult for pedestrians to navigate in some areas.
“Although if the tent wasn’t there, you still wouldn’t walk through the restaurant, so it was more of a perceived barrier,” he said.
“It wasn’t tents that were the barrier, it was the commercial use of two lanes of space that was the barrier.”
Moving forward, Enns said administration recommends re-evaluating the use of tents.
For example, he said the need for tents to avoid inclement weather would not apply if public health restrictions for restaurant interiors were not in place, as those customers would move inside.
“When it comes to whether or not we allow tents in the future, in our minds, if the COVID situation has changed, then I think it’s fair to say that the tent situation could change as well,” he said.
Mayor Karen Sorensen said she realizes the allocation of commercial space as well as the tents generated complaints throughout the summer.
She said next year’s pedestrian zone will be discussed at a meeting, likely to be scheduled in November, in order to give businesses time to prepare for next year.
“At the time, I thought the guidelines that were put in place were appropriate … but all these topics will be discussed,” she said.
“Absolutely, there were hiccups and this wasn’t perfection, but it was a great effort and a great result based on what we were dealing with.”
Enns said he expects there will be even more visitors to Banff next year, and despite some of this year’s challenges, believes the pedestrian zone can go ahead again.
“We think it’s critical we maintain business presence on the street; commercial presence is critical for animation and vibrancy,” he said.
“However, we might distribute it a bit differently, creating less structures and maybe a different allocation system or revisiting that.”
Councillor Corrie DiManno called the pedestrian zone this summer a success in terms of allowing for physical distancing and helping struggling businesses.
“We had low to no cases in Banff over the summer, and in our eight months we’ve only had 14 cases,” she said.
“I don’t know where else in the world there’s a tourist destination that can say that. It is miraculous.”
Coun. DiManno agreed the focus of the pedestrian zone should be on next summer, and like her council colleagues, was not prepared to discuss five years into the future at this point.
“I think we’re still going to be experiencing a lot of the protocols we have had in place this summer into next summer and I think it would just be good planning,” she said.
“We plan for it and if we have to make changes we can make changes.”
DiManno said with the pedestrian zone and the redevelopment of Bear Street creating a “whole pedestrian ecosystem” is a chance to reimagine Banff’s future.
“We were talking about over-tourism, we were talking about traffic management, we were talking about wildlife coexistence because of the amount of tourists, we were talking about GHG emissions because of the amount of vehicles,” she said.
“This global pandemic has given us a chance to really reimagine what we want our community to look like and our destination to look, and I think we have a real opportunity to rebuild with our core values in mind, and something like this pedestrian zone speaks a lot to those values.”
