The Forks ‘back on track’ Visits, revenue back to pre-pandemic levels, CEO says By: Malak Abas Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023

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This article was published 15/02/2023 (960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Forks has declared it’s “pretty much back” from the pandemic after more than 257,000 people checked out the downtown attraction in January.

“We are back on track to pre-pandemic numbers,” said Sara Stasiuk, CEO of The Forks North Portage Development Corp., on Wednesday as she delivered the keynote speech at a winter cities conference in Winnipeg.

The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow to the shops and restaurants at the historic site, which had taken a hit in winter 2020 because it was so unseasonably warm it wasn’t able to open its popular river skating trail.

Stasiuk told conference delegates The Forks is “pretty much back.”

Visits are tracked by paid parking and automated eco-counter posts, which includes people who arrive by bus, bicycle, the river trail and other active transport.

Stasiuk provided visitation data for the months of February and July from 2015 to 2022, which shows considerably lower visits during pandemic years.

For example, 88,000 people went to The Forks in February 2022; 65,000 visits were logged in the same month in 2021. Pre-pandemic, 312,000 visits were recorded in February 2019.

Stasiuk said visits had started to creep up in July 2022, when there were 264,000. That was up from 221,000 visits in 2021, but way down from the 375,000 visits in July 2019.

“From 2020 onwards, there’s more money being spent per person than (previously). Not sure if that is anomalous or not, but what it says to me is that people are sticking around longer and are spending more money.”–The Forks CEO Sara Stasiuk

The Forks finally hit pre-pandemic visitation numbers in September 2022, Stasiuk said.

“People are using our site, our space, and time a little bit differently… People are spreading themselves out because there are things to do, exciting stuff, across our whole site,” Stasiuk said.

Even though visits were comparatively low in February 2022, those visitors generated $1.359 million in sales.

That’s still in line with recent pre-pandemic years, Stasiuk said. For example, $1.42 million in sales was recorded in February 2017.

“From 2020 onwards, there’s more money being spent per person than (previously). Not sure if that is anomalous or not, but what it says to me is that people are sticking around longer and are spending more money. There are opportunities for them to spend money,” Stasiuk said.

Post-pandemic, visitors tend to fan out across the 52-acre site versus sticking to the shops and restaurants in the Forks Market.

In the past, visits spiked on evenings and weekends, and in January, February, July and August. Stasiuk said attendance has become more consistent throughout each day and every month of the year.

Overall economic activity is expected to reach $200 million this year, Stasiuk said.

Pre-pandemic economic activity was around $190 million.

The Forks is well into a “recovery phase,” Stasiuk said; 11 of its market tenants are set to break $1 million in sales this fiscal year, a new record for The Forks.

Stasiuk credited the quick revival to the operating model of The Forks, which is a community development corporation, meaning any revenue it builds has to be invested back into the site.

“We take a percentage of sales, but (when) our tenants do well, we do well,” she said.

“I’m hoping to see some sparks from somewhere else that go, ‘Oh, my God, we could do that here. Why don’t we do that?’”–Travel Manitoba president Colin Ferguson

When sales crashed during the pandemic, the tenants didn’t lose money “which is why I think we’ve been able to recover and be back to pre-pandemic numbers so quickly.… (Tenants) didn’t lose their houses, they didn’t have to close up shop and walk away from their spaces, because the spaces just sat idle.”

The Winter Cities Shake-Up conference, which brings together urban planners, entrepreneurs and community leaders from across North America, explores how best to leverage winter fun for tourists and locals alike. The conference runs until Friday.

Travel Manitoba president Colin Ferguson said the conference is a chance for officials from other cities to learn from the success of Winnipeg institutions like The Forks, and vice versa.

“I’m hoping to see some sparks from somewhere else that go, ‘Oh, my God, we could do that here. Why don’t we do that?’” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca