The only tea I drink is PGTips.

Oh it's not actually a problem because I never drink brandy!

Did I read that Jsmth has deleted his account? That's concerning.

Canada unemployment 55% higher than G7 average.

It looks pretty grim for the immediate future I suppose.There are some bullet-proof industries and essential services but I guess hospitality and travel won't have a busy season. Where I work I was kept on staff but except for the occasional thing all our bar staff were laid off.

Not a good time to be in tourism, hospitality or airline or anything dependent on such industries. 2nd tourism season in a row where there wont be cruises or foreign tourists, and there are not enough domestic tourists to make up the difference. Westjet did some major outsourcing over the last 10 months, so even when things recover many wont be getting their job back there, Air Canada is down 50% employee count wise vs pre-pandemic, its pretty ugly, even Starbucks is cutting back pretty significantly, store count in Vancouver for example is down to around 50 now vs a little over 100 in January 2020, just city of Vancouver.

Agreed.
As if the brick and mortar travel agents weren't struggling enough pre-covid, this pandemic has pretty much wiped them all out. Here in Kamloops there is a shop that specialized in booking cruises. I haven't been downtown for a while but I can't imagine it stayed open throughout this. Such a shame.

I feel very, very sorry for everyone who has lost their job during the pandemic...especially those you have mentioned above.

I think it is going to be several years before cruising gets going again. Many ports will still be closed throughout this year and into 2022. A huge problem IMO, is getting all the crew vaccinated...many of which come from the Phillipines, Thailand etc.

I just think back to my airport days and in summer how many extra flights there were just because of cruises, and all the cruise support staff who worked at the airport, the buses and their drivers just to name a few.

Cruise port staff, taxis/UBER etc, the food that is sold and delivered to the ports, the drivers who deliver the food and supplies. Locals who provide transport for excursions. Not to mention the thousands of workers on every ship.

It’s mind blowing the number of people out of work.

It's pretty bad for sure.

Tiz so. Internal airline pilots , air crew here in NZ are reinventing themselves by working at any ole jobs., mostly horticulture picking fruit and the like. Seasonal workers are not coming in so these positions need filling anyway.

I only speak re NZ but I personally feel the tourism industry became far too large and overladen to the detriment of NZ itself. I agree it is very hard for those working in or relying on that service industry but often it does little for local communities and the like. I think the same for other areas around the world, like Venice , National Parks and the like. Stifling , almost strangling an area for those locals that live in a place but also for the flora , fauna and wildlife. Perhaps there might be something of a reset. I can but hope.

Canada probably is big enough and spread out sufficiently where its not as big an issue, but still likely is for some places, but then places like Whistler couldn't exist without foreign tourists, its not locals keeping the town going.

I can think of a few places in BC that would be in a bad spot without tourists.

Yes. I see what you mean with that. Whistler ? Does that mean USA tourists or European tourists maybe? NZ does exchanges for Whistler v Queenstown here because of winter sport activities.. Queenstown mushroomed out of all proportion over the years since we have been here , mostly down to the hordes of tourists descending on the place all year round. I do mean hordes. It was almost hot housed as a destination. Totally priced locals in the area out of being able to rent or buy a property. It squeezed local businesses out, as the tourist sector only dealt with the bigger players in the food and service industry . The in-house thing and all that. It is struggling now. Whistler though is a long time old destination. I remember that from decades ago when I was still skiing so incoming winter sports folks have been intrinsic to it for a very long time.

Very difficult to balance. I sort of see it like the climb Mt Everest thing. That got out of hand. Hopefully some reset there will happen also. I would like thoughtful and more careful tourism I suppose.

Does anybody else think Xanax and sleeping pills are an appropriate reaction to Valentines Day?

Totally ignoring it is probably healthier