A message to visitors of Bowen Island during the COVID-19 pandemic
Bowen Island is proud to host thousands of visitors every year. We know that people come here for peaceful respite throughout all seasons of the year, whether it’s for a convenient day trip to enjoy our trails and scenery, a weekend getaway or a longer vacation. This is an incredible place we call home. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of uncertainty to our community.
Bowen Island Municipality and Tourism Bowen Island are asking all visitors to postpone trips to Bowen Island, whether you were planning on coming here for the day or staying with one of our accommodation providers. We’re also asking visitors currently on the island to make your plans to return home. Our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that the most important thing we can do is to stay home, and not travel unless it’s absolutely necessary. We know you want to come and enjoy Bowen Island, but our message to you today is “Please do not come”. Stay home.
“We take pride in welcoming visitors to our island, and hope you will make plans to visit us again when our community is ready to host you,” said Mayor Gary Ander. “For now, we have to make sure our residents and businesses are taken care of. We thank you for understanding the important action of staying home.”
Our local businesses and services are scaling down operation to serve our essential needs, in order to protect the personal health and safety of the citizens of our small community. We rely on our small businesses to support our residents, and they do not have the resources to support high volumes of visitors at this difficult time.
Like many other small communities, Bowen Island has extremely limited resources to serve our citizens. As the window narrows to help “flatten the curve” we need everyone’s help – including the thousands of visitors who love and cherish our beautiful island.
"This has been a difficult decision for tourism, which plays such an important role in our local economy,” said Murray Atherton of Tourism Bowen Island, “We hope that you will enjoy Bowen Island through images and your memories of past visits, and we are looking forward to welcoming everyone back in the future.”
Visitors currently on the island are encouraged to speak to their accommodation providers about making arrangements to go home. Guests with upcoming stays are strongly encouraged to listen to all directives from senior levels of government and to contact their accommodation providers to rebook plans.
We thank you for your understanding as we take unprecedented measures to protect our community at this very difficult time.