Editor:
To travel out or explore at home, that is the question.
As the weather beckons ever more to take that trip out of town, we need to be fully aware of the pros and cons in doing so. I was reminded of this while reading an article online from the National Geographic recently regarding hikers eager to leave the cities for their favourite treks. In ordinary times a surge of visitors would be a welcome boon for us rural folks on the Sunshine Coast. But during a pandemic we need to consider a cost-benefit ratio on this traditional seasonal surge. While livelihoods here are largely built on seasonal tourism, every additional person who comes here will also put one more potential stressor on what we have for limited resources, be it grocery store, the clinics, the hospital, our emergency fire, rescue and other first responders. So, it’s also an existential question for us.
Therefore, before folks decide to journey out of their urban nests this summer, perhaps it would be wiser to explore alternatives within one’s own geographic area, the local sites yet to be discovered at home, mindful how that is also a responsible, community-spirited act that will in time benefit all of us together to recover economically with the fewest COVID-19 fatalities.
Jürgen Dankwort, Sechelt
