Northern N.B. hotels, restaurants hit hard by winter with little snow
For Stephane Boudreau, this winter's snowmobile season has been the slowest he's seen in his three-decade career working the front desk at Bathurst's Atlantic Host Hotel.
The season typically lasts from Dec. 15 to April 15, but the lack of snow means there are now no snowmobile tracks on the trails.
Boudreau said winter business depends on snowmobilers pulling into the lot on their sleds, but this season it's been quiet.
"I've noticed that it was really slow and a lot of snowmobilers were disappointed because they're so used to us having snow all the time," he said.
Cathy Pelletier, general manager of Edmundston's Chamber of Commerce, said the shortage of snow has been "devastating" for hotels and restaurants in her corner of northern New Brunswick.
DON'T MISS: Everything you need to know for April's spectacular and rare solar eclipse
The northwest depends on tourists from Quebec and the United States but most snowmobilers didn't show up this season and trails were only good for brief periods in January and February.
"It's a total wreck," Pelletier said of the winter. "Right now the season is completely over. A lot of businesses are suffering from that — especially the hotels, the restaurants, anything that implies tourism."
Pelletier said many of the businesses suffering this season were also hit hard by the COVID pandemic and are still trying to recover from those losses.
Many snowmobilers from the U.S. and Quebec did not visit New Brunswick this winter. (Submitted by Cathy Pelletier)
She heard from one hotel that had refused a hockey tournament because it was already booked for a snowmobile group. As the forecast changed, the snowmobilers cancelled and the hotel was left empty, said Pelletier.
Marilyn Lavallée, tourism director at the Restigouche Regional Service Commission, agrees "it's been a very difficult winter."
Lavallée said a major snowmobiling event — the White Gold Odyssey Festival — planned in partnership with Bathurst, Edmundston and Tracadie was canceled in mid-January due to a lack of registrations.
Soon after their announcement, other winter activities, including pond hockey tournaments in Caraquet and Plaster Rock, were also cancelled.
"Our trails up in the northern part of the province are all mostly closed, or the groomers are not going out because there's not sufficient snow," she said.
This article was originally written for CBC News.