Effects of Coronavirus border towns in the West

The closure of the border has strongly and negatively impacted travel in border towns in Montana and B.C. The usual bubbly activities around the Canada – U.S. border, South of Fernie, B.C. is on the low.  Owners of businesses whose mainstay is the revenue from tourism are envisaging the worst due to the ban on international travel, the Canada – U.S. border is closed because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The owner of the First & Last Chance Bar and Duty-Free Store located on the U.S. side of the border, David Clarke, gave an account of the usual hustle and bustle that takes place before the pandemic, he went on to say that, the existence of traffic of persons is tradition but presently, his store is often bare.

The manager of a fly shop and a river guiding business, Paul Samyica, also envisages this summer will be on the low for businesses in the border town, he went further to say that the majority of his customers are American; he testified that by July ending, they would have gone on 220 trips, he expressed skepticism for making even 50 trips this year.

That is the testimony of the majority of business owners in border towns whose income is dependent on tourists from outside the country to cushion the economy on both ends of the international border. The Coronavirus pandemic has brought to light some evident similitude and vast extensive variance in the perspective of the inhabitants of Canadian and American border towns. 

The Canadian and U.S. governments are in one accord to close down non-essential transactions between the countries on 21^st March; and in the early parts of this month, the accord was extended till August.  As the countries continue to face an upsurge of the Coronavirus cases at alarming measures in some states, it is not certain when the closure on the border will be lifted. Gordon Sombrowski, another business owner, with two hotels in Fernie and another in Spokane, Wash, said, the experience so far is simply based on fear of the unknown.