Jasper Wildfire 2024: What Worsening Wildfire Seasons could mean for Canada’s Tourism Industry

Madelin Houck
Sep 3, 2024
6 min read

The Tourism Situation

We’ve likely all seen the disheartening photos emerging from the town of Jasper. Residents were able to return on August 16th for the first time to see how their houses fared and plan for the future. Reports claim one third of the town has been destroyed, primarily the western side where a majority of the buildings are residences and housing. The eastern half, including the majority of the townsite’s hotels, were spared. However when we’re discussing getting the town back up and running, there’s a lot more to consider than if the hotels are merely still standing.

Staffing

Seasonal workers keep parks like Jasper and other tourist towns afloat, without them local economies face labour shortages.

A large portion of the town’s workers reside in staff accommodation. The biggest source of staff accommodation in Jasper is at the Cavell Apartments, conveniently nestled in behind several hotels on the east end of town. This is where a majority of employees of Pursuit hotels a nd attractions, Marmot Basin staff, and several smaller adventure companies house their staff. As of right now, the building appears to still be standing. However many other staff accommodations have not been so lucky. Reports show that parts of Jasper Park Lodge’s ‘new staff’ complex have been destroyed and many other businesses own staff houses on the west side of town. Besides which, many workers who opt to find their own housing live on the west side of town. Destroyed housing will certainly put pressure on the surviving residences including Cavell apartments, and it will likely be the small businesses that have the most trouble finding places for their staff to live.

Many staff members in town have lived semi-nomadically for many years, and so might move on while the town recovers. Even those who had no plans to leave before may be forced to look for new employment in order to find housing and an income while the town recovers. Marmot Basin, who recently revealed that none of the infrastructure on the ski hill was affected by the fire, have announced plans to reopen for the winter season right on schedule. Watching how they manage staffing, staff housing, and what kind of challenges they face this year will be telling for businesses hoping to re-open next summer.

Most of the Famous Jasper Park Lodge was spared from the fire but any local businesses weren’t so lucky.

Regardless, I don’t expect to see a town operating at full capacity in 2025.

Infrastructure

It’s the most visible part of any great disaster. Piles of rubble, maps of the fire’s path, maps of the destruction to the town, and news of buildings that have stood since the town’s early years pull at our heartstrings. These buildings fuel the local economy and tourism industry.

I’ve already discussed the housing problem above, and news outlets have reported widely that the hotel-dominated east side of town remains relatively un-singed. Jasper Park lodge, the historic Fairmont hotel on the south bank of the Athabasca river recently released a statement revealing that the damage done to their property does not include the historic main hall, which is still standing.

However not everyone is so lucky. From night one of the fire, reports revealed that family-owned Maligne Lodge (not to be mistaken with Maligne Lake though I appreciate the condolences I received from friends and family. Maligne Lodge is located just off the highway on the west side of Jasper, a nearly 50km drive from the north tip of Maligne Lake where the historic tea house sits.) was engulfed in flames. Likewise, the CBC reports that Jasper Raft Tours has lost their launching site on the Athabasca river as well as rafts, life jackets, and infrastructure that was on the site. The Edmonton Journal reports that the HI Maligne Canyon Wilderness Hostel and the Pursuit-owned Maligne Canyon Wilderness Kitchen have both fallen victim to the fire. These buildings will take time to rebuild, should companies choose to rebuild at all.

Wildlife enthusiast flock to our National Park every year! With fires on the rise they may chose to head elsewhere.

Besides the destruction, businesses have other concerns regarding their infrastructure. Worsening fire seasons are almost certain to raise insurance premiums in high risk areas, adding cost to risk for tourism operators not only in Jasper but across Western Canada.

Optics

From a marketing perspective, large fires with major evacuations and consequences creates an optics crisis for future seasons. If people believe that the parks are unsafe, or that wildfire smoke and fire bans will dominate their stay, they may choose to go elsewhere. Travelers pay thousands of dollars to travel to Canada’s mountain parks, but they may not see it as a risk worth spending money on if major fires are the norm. Even if they dodge the active wildfires, will they be seeing the beautiful mountain landscapes from the postcards? Or debris from the last fire? Anyone who has lived in wildfire zones can appreciate the beauty of an ecosystem in recovery after a fire, but international tourists may not be so sure.

Looking beyond the individual, tour companies provide massive amounts of trade and bookings in tourist towns like Jasper. They design tours around what tourists want to see and make money by booking large groups at discounted rates. Depending on the business, travel trade may account for the vast majority of the visitors they receive. When speaking with the CBC, Scott Eady, the founder of Jasper Raft Tours attributed 75% of their business to these kinds of tour companies. He also described receiving phone calls from these companies with concerns about their bookings for 2025. Meanwhile, Watertown National Park is feeling the effects as well. Despite being safe from wildfires at this time, Watertown is often part of tour itineraries that include Banff and Jasper. With the Jasper fire taking that park out of the equation, Global News reports that they saw a slurry of cancellations. If tour companies see mountain towns as risky bets, they may drive down rates or withdraw their business altogether in favor of focussing trips to coastal areas where fire risk remains lower. Travel agents may advise clients to skip certain areas altogether.

What about major events? Even before our fire season had begun, major events around BC chose to cancel or reschedule due to concerns about the small snowpack leading to a destructive wildfire season. In early February, CBC reported that Fort Saint-John canceled it’s August Air Show citing the fire risks. In that same article, they also reported that the Kamloopa Powwow Society’s annual 3 day celebration and the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Music Festival had been rescheduled due to similar concerns. If event organizers and travel companies begin to see August as a risky time to bet on BC the already short Western Canada summer tourist season might be shortened even more.

Travel Routes

Canada is a huge country with limited travel routes. To cross the BC-Alberta border, car have the option of only 4 major routes. Those options are the Yellowhead Highway (passing through the yellowhead pass, connecting the Region of Fraser Fort George to Jasper National Park), the TransCanada Highway (connecting Yoho National Park on the BC side to Banff National Park on the Alberta side), Highway 93 (connecting the town of Radium, BC with Banff National Park), or the Crowsnest Highway (connecting Fernie, BC to Frank and Bellevue, Alberta). Likewise, railways only cross the Rockies at two points, in Jasper (CN) and Banff (CP). These two railways connect Canadian exporters and importers to the west-

Tour businesses account for a large portion of BC’s tourism businesses, if these companies lose faith in our ability to provide service and attractions reliably, they may change their routes.

coast ports and connect western Canadian goods to eastern Canada and vice versa. These are also the rail lines upon which Via and the Rocky Mountaineer operate their tours. The Rocky Mountaineer in particular relies on the scenic railways to create their experiences.

When natural disasters, like the fire in Jasper, or the floods and landslides on BC’s south coast (which cut Greater Vancouver and her port off from the rest of the country in November 2021), they disrupt tourist routes and force plans to change or tourists to cancel them entirely. And climate scientists predict that these kinds of disasters will only increase as the climate crisis worsens. Towns like Hinton, Alberta; Clearwater, BC; or Valemount, BC which usually benefit from the flow of tourists between Jasper and Kelowna/Vancouver have already cited a decline in visitors this summer due to the Jasper wildfire complex.

Overall…

I don’t think anyone is surprised that a wildfire event seriously disrupts a tourism season and creates unique challenges for businesses. Still, when events worsen every year and evacuations become more and more common, the futures of these businesses, even those not affected by this year’s major event, come into question. How can we keep our staff safe? How can we quickly rebuild to avoid losing another season? How do we build confidence with future travellers and tour companies? Wildfires complicate all of these answers and have lasting impacts on local economies and the BC tourism industry as a whole.

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