Tourists are once again swarming the sidewalks of Banff Avenue after the town was forced to walk back a decision to keep a pedestrian-only zone in place every summer.
Overcrowding in Banff has been the story of the summer that keeps on giving. Whether it’s Johnston Canyon, Lake Louise, or Banff Avenue, Canada’s oldest national park and its namesake town along the Bow River are getting loved to death.
In 2020, the Town of Banff decided to close the 100 and 200 blocks of Banff Avenue to vehicle traffic from May to October. It was a response to COVID-19 pandemic crowding.
After consulting residents, Banff Town Council voted last January to make this pedestrian zone a permanent annual feature from the May long weekend to the Thanksgiving long weekend.
It was short-lived. In March, citizens filed a petition demanding that the town scrap it.
On August 12, the council put it to a binding vote. A majority voted “no,” with 1,328 votes against and 1,194 in favour of the pedestrian zone.
Despite the close vote, the car-free concept has crashed and burned.
In Like a Flood
After the Labour Day long weekend, the vehicle-blocking barriers came down, the cars came back, and so did the sidewalk-crowding hordes of ice cream-eating, selfie-taking tourists.
It took only a few hours for the complaints and photos of jammed Banff Avenue sidewalks to start hitting social media.
A picture showing elbow-to-elbow Banff Avenue crowds was shared to Reddit in early September with the title, “Well, it’s back to using the alleys then.”
The post sparked a mountain of commentary and debate.
“All goddamn year. It’s a tourist town but the number of visitors has gone through the roof in the past decade. I know a few locals who’ve packed up and left because of it,” wrote one commentator.
According to Parks Canada, the number of visitors to Banff National Park has grown over 30 percent over the past decade. The 2023/24 season was the busiest ever recorded at 4.28 million tourists.
That’s equivalent to about 2 ½ Calgary’s population deciding to visit the national park in one year, based on 2023 population data.
Tourism is great, but not at the expense of locals. It isn’t just over-tourism pushing locals away. Albertans are leaving Banff because of the high cost of living, lack of affordable housing, and feeling disconnected from their community.
Banff’s tourism isn’t powered by magic. The town needs locals to run many of the businesses tourists flock to. What happens when all of the locals leave?
To make matters worse, local businesses are also forced to compete with Pursuit, an American company with a stranglehold on Banff and Jasper’s tourism industry.
