It’s still overcast in the early morning as a small sea of backpacks, flipflops and sunglasses load onto the Bowen Island ferry for the short ride from Hoseshoe Bay.
Although the lineup seems busy, it may not be indiciative of the visiting crowds this summer, depending on who you talk to. Several businesses from Snug Cove to Artisan Square have had different tastes of tourism numbers so far.
“We found the visitors this year are way down,” said Basia Lieske, who runs the Union Steamship Marina Complex, including the gift shop and Union Steamship Cottages. “Our ice cream sales are better because we’ve had some really, really hot days.”
Lieske said the cottages haven’t seen a lot of business either.
“Those numbers are down,” she added. “We’re finding not a lot of people are coming over and staying on the weekends.”
Mostly, the cottages have been booked by people who are attending weddings on the island.
“Most of the tourists that are coming over are big groups of foreign students,” she said. “They don’t really spend a lot of money because they’re kind of on a budget.”
But for Sarah-Jane Curry, one of the owners of her family run Snug Café, tourists seem to just “pour off the street.”
“It’s always busy,” she said. “We pump out a lot of breakfast wraps and breakfast sandwiches. I think it’s been a good summer. It’s very weather dependent.”
Curry noted that it’s a fairly average summer for them with the hustle and bustle turning up with the heat.
“I think August we get all the tourists coming,” she added. “I mean, go and look at the 12 o’ clock ferry. You stand there and you watch them all walk off. They come in droves.”
Jacqueline Massey, executive director of the Bowen Island Arts Council, echoed Curry’s comment on it being a steady summer.
“It all has to do with the weather of course, that’s the draw for people to come to Bowen,” said Massey, noting the arts council has run the visitor’s centre for the last three years. “The stats are up, not significantly in terms of numbers, but we’ve been busy.”
Art and other events, such as Steamship Days, have had consistent turnouts, as well, she added.
“In terms of numbers of people in the (The Gallery at Artisan Square), it’s been consistently high,” Massey said. “We’re always lower in terms of traffic up here compared to (Snug Cove).”
Also, compared to winter, summer isn’t a hard sell to come out to Bowen Island, according to Massey.
“It’s the colder season when it’s a little quieter and we’re trying to come up with some opportunities for people to come and check out what we have on the island,” she said.
