SANDPOINT, Idaho — The town of Sandpoint relies on tourism to keep their ‘mom and pop’ businesses alive, but COVID-19 restrictions are changing the number of visitors they have.
Fewer skiers will be allowed on the neighboring Schweitzer Mountain Resort every day, meaning the city is having to work harder to maintain economic stability. A lot of that work is done by the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce.
“If they close down some of these individuals would lose their livelihoods. And so we’ve really been striving to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kate McAlister, Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce CEO and President, said.
The chamber’s members worked long hours all summer, communicating with local businesses. The work paid off because most of the shops did well.
Part of the success can be attributed to the government grants that small businesses were able to tap into during the thick of the pandemic. McAlister said another big reason they survived was because their tourism did not decrease as much as expected.
In an average summer, Sandpoint triples in size, increasing from 40,000 people to 135,000 people. This summer they did not have that big of an increase, but McAlister said tourists still came in from across the country.
The town saw out of state license plates from as far as Maine. McAlister attributed the tourism to the lack of restrictions in Idaho.
She said many of the travelers said they wanted to escape the strict restrictions that other states were under during the pandemic. Even though the guests helped local businesses, it did cause a spike in COVID-19 cases for Sandpoint.
Plus the town had trouble with staffing, finding it difficult to hire seasonal employees.
As winter approaches and ski season starts, McAlister said the residents of Sandpoint are thankful to the staff at Schweitzer Mountain Resort for putting precautions in place to keep the region safe.
The goal is to keep the town financially stable while avoiding an outbreak of cases.
“We just want to show them [the businesses] a lot of love and make sure they survive. Because that’s what we’re all about -- being that kind of community,” McAlister said.