The owners of Alberta Adventures are expanding their outfitting and tourism business by gaining additional Alberta clientele in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
An economic study conducted by the Alberta Professional Outfitters Society (APOS) predicted $68 million in lost revenue for outfitters in Alberta, $126 million in lost gross economic activity, and an estimated 2,000 jobs lost.
Steve and Debbie Overguard have been in the tourism business for roughly 40 years, and due to the Canadian border closing in response COVID-19 have lost 80 to 90 per cent of their business.
“We are a family-run business, we can do everything possible, and we have a lot of things that people don’t know about. People who want to get out and enjoy the outdoors, we have something to offer for everyone,” Steve said.
“Tourism is our whole life. Now with the border being closed, and people being scared of COVID-19, we’re in limbo, we don’t know what we’re doing to do. It’s a hard deal right now,” he said.
Adding, “We’re trying to expand, but because of COVID-19 we’re screwed up.”
For Steve, working in the outfitting and tourism industry in Alberta is part of his heritage, as his great uncles were some of the first outfitters and guides in the province.
“We’ve been doing this pretty much our whole working life. It’s been a long, long, long time that our family has been doing this,” Steve said.
“In the last few years, because we’re getting older, we’ve really expanded into adventure tours. We’re really trying to do bear watching, we’re really trying to do the whole thing in Alberta,” he said.
A majority of the Overguard’s clients come from the United States, however, many Alberta clients will fly to the lake to go fishing.
“As soon as COVID-19 hit, everyone was scared. We have people who come every year but because of COVID-19 everyone was scared to travel,” Steve said.
However, the Overguard’s have been researching and studying different ways to ensure the safety of potential clients.
In addition to losing a majority of clients, the Overguard’s still have expenses with no guaranteed income.
“One of the major challenges is keeping equipment in good running order, making sure we had everything we needed on hand in case something broke when a client was there so it could be fixed quickly, and get moving again,” Debbie said.
“We’ve gone ahead and purchased parts for the machinery, we still had to keep them running, because we don’t know when the border is going to open. We still have that expense, while not knowing if we have the income for it,” she said.
“A lot of expense went into those types of things,” she added. “Making sure we had the proper guides and fitting them with the client’s personality to make sure they had the best adventure memory to take home with them.”
Despite the continued challenges, being able to give families a memory that will last a lifetime has always been a highlight for Steve while being able to work with his own family.
“One of the highlights for me over the last 40 years is to see the fishing getting better and better. That’s one thing that I really find rewarding,” Steve said.
“My grandkids will still be able to go out and enjoy the fishing. That’s a very important thing to me,” he said.
Adding, “I’m an advocate for our industry, it’s a dying industry and I want my great-grandkids to keep doing it, I really do.”
For more information on Alberta Adventures, please visit, https://www.albertaadventures.com/.
