By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
As Haliburton County hits the summer halfway mark, tourism traffic is keeping pace with 2025 numbers, but local businesses said tightening consumer budgets, rising wholesale costs, and unpredictable weather, are hitting profits.
County of Haliburton tourism manager, Angelica Ingram, told The Highlander in a recent interview that welcome centre visits and regional traffic are on par compared to last year’s strong performance, despite a sluggish spring start across the region.
“Last year was a good summer, so if we can stay close to those numbers, we don’t even need to surpass them,” Ingram said.
While the tourism manager noted it’s still early in terms of data, June was down slightly in visitors, but July has made up for that. She pointed to key events such as the Haliburton Art and Craft Festival and the Highlands Summer Festival, where Anne of Green Gables sold more than 90 per cent of available tickets.
“I think where we’re at right now for summer visitors is making most of the businesses and the operators happy,” Ingram said. “If we can maintain the consistency, that’s great, and so far, we seem to be doing that.”
To help entice visitor traffic during the current economic outlook, the County focused on shorter getaway promotions to lure people from southern Ontario. Ingram explained the County distributed about 12,000 copies of its explore map through The Globe and Mail on July 1, which resulted in a spike of phone calls to the tourism department with people asking about two-to three-night road trips.
But, despite steady foot traffic, retail businesses noted that overall visitor spending has become somewhat conservative.
“There are a lot of challenges right now… there is price sensitivity and challenges with input costs into businesses,” Amanda Conn of the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce told The Highlander.
Mathew Renda, co-owner of Boshkung Brewing Co., said he’s seeing the economic shift play out firsthand. He said while there’s been higher foot traffic at Boshkung Social in Minden, overall transaction sizes are down.
Gas price and weather impacts
“We’re seeing more people, but they’re just spending less,” Renda said, adding the trend may partly be because of gas prices keeping cottagers closer to their properties. “Gas prices are kind of through the roof right now, and more people, I feel, are kind of hunkering down.”
The wild weather has also played a role for many businesses.
At Algonquin Outfitters in downtown Haliburton, Scott Swaga said overall revenue is up, mainly driven by seasonal cottagers purchasing big-ticket water sports gear. He noted recent wildfire smoke temporarily slowed mid-week foot traffic.
Down the street at Redmans Records, the wet weather has helped boost sales as visitors look for indoor activities when the rain keeps them out of the lake. But with rising wholesale costs and shipping fees from distributors, the store owner said it’s squeezing profit margins.
“Every single distributor has sent an email this year saying prices are being updated and going up,” Kelsey Redman said. “I am focusing more now on used vinyl, used equipment, used instruments, because it’s just not possible otherwise.”
Businesses on the main streets of Minden and Haliburton are also navigating seasonal construction and parking restrictions as well as foot traffic disruptions from sidewalk upgrades. In response, small business owners are relying on organic cross-promotions, social media sharing, and word-of-mouth recommendations to keep customers moving through nearby stores.
“I kind of like the idea of businesses helping each other,” Redman said. “It’s nothing on paper, but we do often tell each other to go to each other’s places, and I’ll have other store owners come over for coffee, and they’ll mention they send people here. And I’ll mention I send people there all the time, too.”
The County and business leaders are banking on shoulderseason events such as fall colour tours, the Studio Tour Haliburton Highlands, and Hike Haliburton to help sustain business momentum through the fall.
