Windsor local tourism industry hopeful for a boost in 2023

Saturday, December 24, 2022

The local tourism industry in Windsor, southwestern Ontario city in Canada is riding high on the wave of positivity expecting better days for the tourism sector in the coming year 2023 despite the tourism recovery being slow in2022.

As of the end of October, year-to-date hotel occupancies were up 6.3 per cent, but that figure was based on 2021 as the comparator, which was not a good year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Gordon Orr, chief executive of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, said adding that hotel occupancy remained in the mid-50s percent range.

The slight increase in the hotel occupancy figures was due to the strong support showed by tourists and locals for area wineries, breweries and the return of festivals in 2022.

But the summer season, which typically carries the local industry through the slower winter months, didn’t see the hoped-for full return of American visitors, something “our community, as a border community, is heavily reliant on,” said Orr.

Business in the casino and entertainment business has trickled back, Caesars Windsor president Kevin Laforet was quoted by windsorstar.com as saying.

“We’re encouraged by the trends. We’ve seen a nice pick-up in it,” Laforet said. “We knew it wouldn’t be like turning on the taps.”

Both Orr and Laforet said Ontario’s Staycation tax credit has been helpful, the website reported. The provincial tax credit allows Ontario residents to claim up to 20 per cent of eligible leisure accommodation expenses for stays between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2022, when filing personal 2022 income tax returns.

Individuals will be able to claim up to $1,000 and families can claim up to $2,000 for a maximum credit of $200 and $400, respectively.

“As we come out of the COVID pandemic, people will want to travel more. We want to encourage them to travel in the province as much as possible,” Orr said.

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