Any speculation if resorts/fly-ins will be offering any deals to fill in for cancellations, no trade shows etc? Might be a bounty for those with a flexible schedule. I’m hoping so.
My wife suggested I go fishing with one of her friends husband. I don’t think she expected me to say “good idea, I’m hoping for some screaming deals on some Canadian destinations once the border opens up” 
Man, I just hope that border opens up before or even during summer! I’m stressin big time about a few of my trips up there. Did some digging and this was the most relevant article I could find.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/09/trudeau-coronavirus-reports-canada-178240
To summarize, PM Trudeau said normality wont occur for another 12-18 months. Says the first wave may end by summer, and that’s when he will begin to lift some of the current economic stressors. Fears more waves will follow if he lifts too much too early. Like the US, though, peak will occur in the next month or so. Either way, wont be making any decisions with out “rigorous surveillance.”
No idea where opening up nonessential travel ranks on his level of importance, or, how much worse the virus could hit Canadians if he opened the border too soon. He doesn’t seem like he’ll be nearly as aggressive as Trump will be.
I’d do some dirty, dirty things for it to be opened before mid-june though 
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see the border closed to non essential travel through the year. Shame as it is, its probably for the best. Government and big businesses are taking this seriously. Alot of people are not though we do have pockets of responsible people. I’d rather go through this just once and suffer the consequences than have a restart on this in fall or next winter. Canada will still be there whenever this ends.
Why would they cut prices? I would expect prices at resorts and just about everything else to take a healthy price jump after this. Just because businesses are closed does not mean their expenses stopped. Thoses expenses still need to be paid somehow. Not to even mention everyones bailout monoey will need to be paid for also.
The last I heard was all non-US travel is for sure shut down until July 1st, and the US border was/is closed from March 21st-April 21st, with the official position being they’ll re-evaluate it at that time. I’m hoping they keep it shut for another month, then open it up at the end of May/start of June, but myself and the guys I was planning to hit the Red River with on in mid-June have already started talking backup plans.
x2 with Big Pike.
Lots of maybes here. While I”m not giving up hope on some of my trips, at the end of the day if not having those thousands of people traveling all those distances can help save lives? So be it. Not sure how places like Atikokan, Ft. Frances, Sioux Lookout, Kenora, etc have the hospitals and people to handle hardly anything. Have friends up there and many over 70, if our US anglers not coming may save them or their neighbor, I’ll suck it up. I’ve already canceled a March trip.
Now to the original question, I’m not sure how hot deals can get. Kind of depends on their fixed vs non-fixed expenses. Any revenue in an otherwise empty cabin will help against fixed expenses. However just the opposite for non-fixed. Could be for some it’s cheaper to just not open this season as opposed to deep discounts.
A few weeks ago I was holding out hope that the border would be back open by the Start of June. At this point I’ve about given up any hope that will be the case. As far as good deals or not I’m not sure what way that will go. Part of me says the prices will go up in a attempt to recover some of the lost $. The other part of me says they will lower the price to get as much money coming in as possible as fast as possible. I’m not sure how much $ come from Foreign country visitors to Canada but my guess is a fair amount. I would think they will try and get the borders open as soon as possible to limit the loss of those $’s.
I have a trip planned leaving May 26th, has anyone heard if they are going to extend the closure past May 20th?
I don’t doubt that, with Minnesota having a stay at home order through the 18th currently I’d find it hard to believe they would open international travel on the 20th. Just curious what the chatter is.
Based on no information other than what everyone else has, it seems that we are way ahead in cases per person here than Canada. If I were to speculate they aren’t going to let us in anytime soon. I hope not, but fall 2020 almost seems early to me at this point.
I’m hoping like many that they open the border, open the resorts and allow them to make money and allow vacationers to get away from it all. Lord knows, many of us could use a good vacation from our homes! 
With that being said, I look at this whole situation much like I do with ice fishing. There’s no fish or fishing situation on earth that is worth somebody’s life. And if keeping borders, resorts, etc closed in order to maintain safety until this all blows over, I for one am good with that. Will I miss going to Canada and the 4 decades of trips we’ve been doing? Most certainly. But, Canada will be there next year, and I hope all the resorts, owners and workers will be too, both business wise, and in the flesh. 
I tend to look at it this way….if I don’t get to go to Canada this year, then I’m taking that week to fish & learn local lakes in my area a whole lot better. 
As for prices, my uneducated guess is they’ll remain the same for most places this year. Next year I suspect a higher than usual bump up though.
With demand down due to the border closing, prospective loss of May/June/July bookings, prices will likely fall in the short term as resorts compete for the remaining customers.
Longer term many of the resorts may fail due to lack of revenue, reducing the number of competitors for fisherman dollars. Price will likely rebound until a new equilibrium is reached.
Yep, I am an Econ geek from way back. Wrote my senior thesis on the impact of sport fishing on the Wisconsin economy focused on Lake Michigan.
They probably wont announce until the 18th or the 19th that they will open the border back up or not. Would be hard to believe they would just let us over the border the same way they have been doing it.
Strictly a guess, but IF the border does reopen this summer or fall–and that’s a BIG “if”–but if it does, my thinking is that demand for lodge/resort space will be huge and prices will go up, not down.
Think of all the guys who had May/June/July and probably early August trips canceled. Now they ALL rush to book the remaining 1-2 months’ worth of availability. It won’t take long for the resorts to realize that they can jack up prices because supply will far outstrip demand for the time left in the season.
But of course, all this hinges on if/when the border reopens, and my guess on that will be the lockdown keeps going well into the winter.
Grouse
Strictly a guess, but IF the border does reopen this summer or fall–and that’s a BIG “if”–but if it does, my thinking is that demand for lodge/resort space will be huge and prices will go up, not down.
Think of all the guys who had May/June/July and probably early August trips canceled. Now they ALL rush to book the remaining 1-2 months’ worth of availability. It won’t take long for the resorts to realize that they can jack up prices because supply will far outstrip demand for the time left in the season.
But of course, all this hinges on if/when the border reopens, and my guess on that will be the lockdown keeps going well into the winter.
Grouse
From what I see most guys are moving the early year trip to the fall. So to some extent the lodges will have customers but will have locked the spring prices in.
I don’t see any prices raising this year, 2020. Now I would think 2021 will go up. Part of the reason will be demand. There are going to be more then one lodge in Canada not survive this thing. As far as I can piece together there will be no Canadian trips in May & June and July will be questionable as this virus thing is just getting ramped up. The worse is ahead of us yet, not behind us. Same goes for Canada.
The rumor I heard is we could see the border opening up shortly…like in a few weeks! fingers crossed
I have seen where the Canadian Provinces may be able to move back and forth,but nothing about opening the border with the United States.
From what I see most guys are moving the early year trip to the fall. So to some extent the lodges will have customers but will have locked the spring prices in.
But keeping in mind, the lodges/resorts already have bookings for these fall periods, so they won’t be starting from empty, they will only have available whatever rooms or capacity that was not already booked. For a prime fall week, there won’t be much available to begin with.
Also, if you took a refund for a booking that was canceled, it will come with the condition that prices for rebooking are not guaranteed.
This is going to impact all of the travel industry for years. My parents had a cruise scheduled for this summer. They were given the option of a refund, but if they took their money back, they have to re-book at whatever the going rate is. If they simply defer their booking to next summer, they lock in their price and their place so they don’t have to compete with the hundreds of thousands of passengers who had cruises canceled this year and will be looking for slots next year.
Grouse
For me getting on a cruise boat would be akin to walking through North Mpls at 2 am.
Saw to many stories of illness on those things. There are still people trying to get off them sitting within spitting distance of shore.
No plans to open the border up. The half assed measures some states have taken have sealed it for the foreseeable future. They don’t even want manitobans going to Kenora.
Has anyone heard anything new on the border closure?
Speculation among some Canadian resort outfitters is the season will not happen until Sept. if at all.
Has anyone heard anything new on the border closure?
The current joint agreement expires may 21st. The discussions are to extend it another three months, but it’s in negotiations. Canada will likely keep the border closed, even if the state’s opens up their side.
I have little faith in the border being open this year. 21 year streak of fishing Nipigon is on the line. My cut off date is mid August. The Canadians are gonna play this conservative that much is a given. Gonna guess alot of resorts will not make it without revenue for a year. The place I go to is run by Native so it wont affect him one bit other than cash in his pocket as he has everything paid for. A strange year indeed. I already have my nephew sold on my backup plan. A week of Grouse/walleye hunting this October keeping our money locally.
My 16yr streak at Grassy Narrows on the English River is at stake as well. We are waiting until they make the next announcement (assuming it will be within the next 7 days). We have tossed around a few ideas for backup plans in late July or early August, LOTW out of Baudette, Rainy Lake (already go there in early October and am familiar with the lake) or Devils Lake (have ice fished it but not open water)
I would not expect any discounting.
Most Canadian resorts and outfitters are pushing for rolling their customer’s deposit over to a 2021 trip. Sounds like money is scarce for refunds and most customers are content or happy to roll it over to next year.
With the additional border closure extensions this fall is looking closer to a complete bust. Based on the above most places should be quite busy next year.
There looks to be just one resort that is bucking the trend and has stated that they will keep all customer deposits from scheduled 2020 trips and they will not apply it to a 2021 trip. This is causing a bit of a ruckus but this resort should have plenty of open spots next year
Broadwater lodge near longville Minnesota refused to roll over down payments to next year of some of my older family members that couldn’t make the trip this year. Definitely gives me pause if I want to give them any more business in the future. I like the resort. But have never cared for the people in charge.
Broadwater lodge near longville Minnesota refused to roll over down payments to next year of some of my older family members that couldn’t make the trip this year. Definitely gives me pause if I want to give them any more business in the future. I like the resort. But have never cared for the people in charge.
This will be interesting to see play out as well. We have been on plenty of waiting lists for resorts to accommodate the whole family, maybe these coming years we can get in finally to some and stay on it for annual trips.
Good to know about Broadwater, looked at staying there quite a few times.
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