Victoria’s downtown experienced a convoy-like incursion of a welcome kind Friday morning, as the Coho car ferry emptied a full boatload of vaccinated travellers onto Belleville Street.
It was the first time since the onset of the pandemic that travellers have been able to cross the border into Canada without taking a COVID test. “It was really good — we were full,” said Ryan Burles, president of Black Ball Ferry, which operates the ferry between Victoria and Port Angeles, Washington.
Ottawa announced two weeks ago that the pre-entry testing requirement would be dropped April 1 for vaccinated travellers entering Canada by land, air or water.
Unvaccinated travellers, including Canadians and those exempt from the vaccine mandate, still need to provide a negative rapid antigen or molecular test, or an accepted form of proof of recent infection to enter the country.
Unvaccinated travellers will also be tested on arrival, and again eight days later, and will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
Dropping of the testing requirement for the vaccinated had an immediate impact, said Burles — on Friday, the morning boat was full coming to Victoria and they even had 56 walk-on passengers from Port Angeles.
“That’s certainly more than we’ve had,” said Burles, who noted it has been the norm to have just a handful of walk-ons, usually coming for business rather than leisure.
The testing requirement and its accompanying high cost all but killed Coho’s day-tripper and walk-on business when it re-started operations in November, as well as Clipper Navigation’s daily trips between Victoria and Seattle.
Normally at this time of year, the Coho would see about 90 walk-on passengers and day-trippers.
“So now we’re hopefully going to start getting day-trippers, so that’s great news,” Burles said. “This is huge for us, it’s everything.”
Burles said the Coho’s reservations are full for the next four days, though they will still have room for drive-up passengers who will board on a first-come-first-served basis.
He said the north-bound trips are busier now due to pent-up demand, spring break in the U.S. and some Canadian snowbirds who were waiting until testing was no longer required to return to Canada.
South-bound trips have also seen strong reservations — about two-thirds full. This weekend is particularly busy due to a massive antique and collector car swap meet in Portland.
Dropping the testing requirement is also a game changer for Clipper, said spokesman Scott Meis.
The company had tried to restart last fall, but shut operations down when low passenger numbers made it unworkable.
“We witnessed how much of a barrier testing was in the fall, and it proved to be too much of an obstacle for the average traveler from Seattle to take a quick weekend getaway to Victoria,” he said.
Now the company is seeing a steady increase in bookings as it ramps up for its April 15 return to service, Meis said.
It will take time for the changes to sink in for the average traveller, however, he said. “For many, international travel has simply been off the table for over two years. They need to see and hear from their family and friends who do travel to Victoria that safe and seamless travel has returned once again.”
Meis said getting staffing levels back up to normal has been a challenge, as it has for everyone else in the travel and tourism industry.
“We remain optimistic that staffing levels will return and that these early positive booking indications are a telltale sign of a strong recovery year for the industry as a whole,” he said.
