It looks as if Haunted Walk of Ottawa's long-running tours of the historic HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel may receive a stay of execution.
Last week it appeared the 20-year relationship between the two Ottawa tourism mainstays was on the rocks after the hostel advised Haunted Walk that its contract to conduct historic and ghost tours wouldn’t be renewed when it expires on June 26, 2016.
But Monday, Hostelling International Canada, which owns the hostel, issued a news release saying it did not wish to end public tours of the old Ottawa jail and “regrets the misinformation that has been shared through the media, alarming both visitors and residents of the city.”
In an interview Monday, Alistair McLean, Hostelling International Canada’s acting executive director, said the two sides plan to meet later this fall. “There have been misunderstandings on both sides,” he said. “I think and I hope that there will be a common ground between the two parties.”
Haunted Walk’s president, Glen Shackleton, said he was pleased by the hostel’s change of heart. He said McLean called him on the weekend “to let me know that they would be interested in having further discussions about continuing the partnership.
“I was thrilled to hear that, obviously. It’s been a very stressful time for all my staff, worrying about their jobs moving forward and worrying about access to this great building.”
Close to 30,000 people a year take Haunted Walk’s tour of the 153-year old former jail and about the same number spend a night there in the hostel, which has operated since 1973.
With increasing demand from hostellers, Greg Brockmann, the hostel’s general manager, said last week there was no longer room for the Haunted Walk tours and the hostel’s own operations.
Haunted Walk derives about half its revenues from the jail hostel tours, so their end would have had forced staff layoffs at the tour company and possibly even imperilled its survival, Shackleton said last week.
The news also alarmed Ottawa Tourism. Reached in Italy, where he is on a bicycle tour, president Dick Brown said the proposed change “would be a huge loss” for Ottawa as a destination. “The Haunted Walk tours of the old jail are incredibly successful in enriching the experience of visitors to Ottawa,” he said by email.
The tours are especially popular among student groups, who descend by the thousands in May and June. “That’s a very important market for us,” said Jantine Van Kregten, Ottawa Tourism’s director of communications.
Shackleton called the hostel’s new openness to discussion a “big change” in its position. “I did receive, in writing, notice that we would not be doing the tours after June and I had never heard anything to contrary until now,” he said. “I think they’ve seen the public reaction to this and maybe realized that people care a lot about this.