After the infamous January 2024 cold snap killed fruit buds across the Okanagan, the owners of Priest Creek Winery in east Kelowna hoped to have a bustling tourist season to make up for their complete loss in yield.
However, instead of welcoming tour busses full of visitors this summer, Priest Creek Family Estate Winery has had to make difficult staffing cuts due to the lack of tourism across the region.
Jane Sawin, owner and operator of Priest Creek, said that in addition to the complete loss of grapes, the winery has seen a significant loss of income, driven by a lack of tourism, coinciding with the provincial ban on short-term rentals.
"We noticed a downturn in July alone of 30 per-cent less traffic and 30 per-cent less sales," said Sawin.
She said that Priest Creek is not alone and other wineries, tour operators and people working in the hospitality industry are experiencing the same or even more significant losses.
"The tourism industry in Kelowna is struggling with some of the changes to the short-term rentals," said Sawin.
On July 30, business owners, tour operators, farmers and members of the conservative party of BC gathered at Priest Creek Winery to discuss how the new short-term rental provincial legislation has impacted the tourism industry with Alexandra Wright, Conservative candidate for the Kelowna-Mission MLA position.
The change in provincial legislation, which came into effect on May 1, defines short-term rentals as any accommodation provided to the public for less than 90 consecutive days, like Airbnb or VRBOs. For more information on the changes and the subsequent bylaw created by Kelowna City Council to enforce the legislation, visit kelowna.ca.
Wright said that she and the Conservative Party are advocating for the short-term rental legislation to be repealed "because it is killing our tourism industry."
"Right now there is an estimate that we have lost $1 billion in winery sales this summer," said Wright about the Okanagan wine industry.
Sawin said that banning short-term rentals in Kelowna has not solved the housing crisis, and has instead created additional issues in tourism.
Across the Okanagan, wineries have had to lay off, our cut hours of staff. Sawin said that at Priest Creek she has had to reduce staffing hours by nearly 50 per cent to remain afloat with fewer customers, as have many other wineries in the region.
"I just really want to be able to support my staff and take care of them, and I can't do that this year."
Additionally, 2024 has been a challenging growing season for all fruit farmers, who have had to contend with a devastating cold snap in January and extreme heat in July.
"We have no fruit coming off the vineyards this year at all. None," said Sawin.
The winery has been in operation for four years after starting amid COVID restrictions. This is the second challenging growing season the Priest Creek vineyards have experienced. Now with the loss of tourism, Sawin is unsure what the future of the winery will look like.
"It just seems like we're always in an uphill battle."
Sawin said Priest Creek has enough wine in stores to last another year, but if the next growing season presents additional challenges, there may be little product remaining for them to sell.
She also said that the winery has received little government support to help the business owners weather the loss of grapes and reduction in tourism.
