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Vernon Gets Ready For Long Weekend Tourists

May 18, 2017 | 8:20 AM

It’s shaping up to be a busy long weekend for tourism in the Vernon area.

“We’re expecting it to be a full house this weekend. All of our tourism partners, Davison Orchards, Kalavida Surf, Mackie Lake House, The Science Centre – everybody’s open and ready to welcome our guests,” says the City’s Tourism Manager Ange Chew.

Chew says with good weather in the forecast, they expect visitors from the Lower Mainland, Alberta and the US.

“We just did our hotel and motel call out and we’re looking at about 75 per cent occupancy already. We have five properties that are full, so we’re looking for quite a busy weekend.”

Chew says at this point, there’s still campsites available

“We have a lot of availability. There’s no concerns but a lot of it is people are holding off because there has been so much rain, but we do have availability and we do have dry spots.”

Chew says the Lower Mainland is their key tourism market, along with Edmonton and Calgary.

She adds they are hoping for a big year for tourism, which will get a big boost from the 55 Plus BC Games in September.