COVID restrictions drastically reduced visitors in 2020

The Baillie House, Merritt’s visitor centre, has posted their fourth quarter figures and unsurprisingly COVID-19 travel restrictions continued to reduce the number of visitors coming to town.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, from October to December, 3,207 visitors stopped at the Merritt Visitor Centre. That represents a 25.6 per cent decrease from 2019.

“The year-to-date visitation for 2020 at the Merritt Visitor Centre was 17,584. Year-to-date visitation decreased by 42.9% for the total number of visitors due to travel restrictions. In comparison, the Merritt Visitor Centre safety hosted more visitors than the majority of other neighbouring visitor centres,” wrote Tourism Manager Will George.

In 2019, 30,780 visitors stopped by the Baillie House, in 2018 the figure was 28,801.

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, the Visitor Centre was closed from March 15 to May 31.