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GRAND FORKS — Ashley Anderson is the owner of The Silo Boutique, a women’s clothing and accessories storefront in Grand Forks and Warren. She said she did remarkably well during the pandemic, keeping sales high with creative marketing and the magic of the internet.
But now customers are back, in-person shopping is thriving around the city and businesses no longer have to treat the internet like a lifeline.
One element that helps: Canadians. They may tend to flow toward Grand Forks’ south end, but their spending is just as good in Anderson’s shop as anyone else’s.
“I just asked our manager today about it. He said ‘yes, we do get a handful,’” she said.
“Even if they don’t buy something, we’re just happy that they just check it out,” she added. “If it’s just one purchase or 100 purchases, we’re just grateful for every single purchase.”
That refrain is probably familiar to business owners who have weathered the storm of the last three years
. Now, though, it looks as though the clouds are finally parting: according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, personal vehicle passengers entering the U.S. from Canada at Pembina, N.D., are surging back toward pre-pandemic levels.
They’re not quite there yet, but for business and tourism officials closely watching Canadian travel, the numbers are promising. In the years 2017 through 2019, the number of personal vehicle passengers entering the U.S. at Pembina averaged 156,115 for the first four months of the year.
In 2020, that figure dropped to just 53% of that multi-year average as pandemic fears set in during March. In 2021 it cratered all the way to 5.32%. But in 2022, it ticked back up to nearly 33%, and for the first four months of 2023, it’s back to nearly 80% of pre-pandemic travel.
Julie Rygg, who heads Visit Greater Grand Forks, said March of 2023 saw local hotel occupancy rates at 55%, beating March of 2019’s 49.4%. She considers it a watershed moment — a post-pandemic month beating pre-pandemic numbers.
“It certainly helps to have minimal restrictions for those Canadians coming over the border,” she said of loosened health restrictions on travel. “I’m hopeful that for the rest of the year, we continue to see that improvement.”
Those numbers come as Grand Forks’ everyday life — big concerts, youth sports competitions and more — fills calendars and hotel rooms. At the Alerus Center, General Manager Anna Rosburg said she’s seeing more Canadian plates in the region.
“The larger shows we have definitely help draw Canadians,” she wrote in an email to the Herald, “especially if an act is not playing in Manitoba or other Canadian markets.”
RELATED:
Grand Forks’ Alerus Center broke record in 2022 for ticketed events, tickets sold
The return of Canadian travelers reflects an overall return to increased travel.
Flight boardings are back up to nearly pre-pandemic levels
, despite knots in the pilot-training pipeline.
“If we had the same amount of flights and seats available today as we did pre-pandemic, we would probably already be back to pre-pandemic levels,” said Kyle Wanner, director of the state aeronautics commission, told Prairie Business Magazine early this year.
Jill Proctor, the president and CEO of the Grand Forks Downtown Development Association, said her group is busy reaching out to Canadian travelers to encourage them to visit the city center – especially for the coming Blues on the Red concert, June 17.
The DDA tracks cell phone data to measure visitor traffic, which helps count visitor traffic downtown. Just like in other places, traffic is back up at pre-pandemic levels, Proctor said.
“We’re entering the busy season, I think, for downtown and guests coming in and attending different events and enjoying all the different amenities that we offer downtown,” she said. “So it’ll be interesting to see how 2023 wraps up in December.”
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