Flooding concerns didn't keep tourists away during the May long weekend.
Nancy Cameron, President of Tourism Kelowna, says for the most part it was a regular May long weekend.
“It’s our understanding from feedback from the tourism businesses that the May long weekend was a very busy weekend, very strong weekend, very consistent to past May long weekends.”
But, water attractions did take a back seat.
“The floods have had an impact on the water based activities, beach accesses, so some of those attractions have been limited.”
Cameron says many tourists come to Kelowna for a variety of activities, including hiking, mountain biking, and wine tours, which keeps attracting visitors despite the minimized water activities.
The flooding has led a lot of potential tourists to call the visitor centre though.
“When this all started to happen that weekend of May 12 and 13, our visitor centre was receiving 20 to 25 calls a day and that quickly diminished after a few days,” says Cameron “Currently, they’re still fielding 5 to 10 calls a day.”
Most calls are from people inquiring about whether they will be able to get around the city during their stay because there's an impression that the streets are under water.
Cameron says Tourism Kelowna continues to monitor the flooding situation and inform tourists of the situation, including that the city of is open for business.