One of the possible drivers of a cannabis industry is the prospect of marijuana tourism. It's a thing now and with the tourism high season sagging badly this year, it could be a thing of the future.
Today we asked the BTIA President about the current outrun of visitors in what should be the high season.
He said the numbers have not been impressive, but interest is picking up, slowly:
Stewart Krohn - President, BTIA"Anecdotally, most places are doing only a small fraction of what they did see in 2019. What I do detect, however, from a broad cross-section of hotels, in any case, is that the inquiries are picking up, and we're seeing reservations actually increasing for February, March, and April. Now, remember that if you look at statistics, March is traditionally the strongest month of the tourism year. That's when we get our largest number of visitors. Whatever happens, the numbers for March are still gonna be probably lower than half of 2019's figures. But, what we're looking for is just some measure of improvement. We want to see a greater willingness on the part of the North American public to feel confident that they can get on a plane. Maybe more of them are vaccinated. Maybe, the overall COVID numbers may go down. But, it's still - I really can't sugar coat it. It's a rough slog, and every room night, and every tour, and every meal that the various constituencies of the tourism industry provide, that's really how we're doing it, 1 at a time."Channel 7