It’s too early to say if the price of gas will affect the tourist industry in northwestern Ontario.

The May long weekend is the unofficial start to the tourist season.

Gerry Cariou is the executive director of the Ontario Sunset Country Travel Association, and the price of gas affects more than people traveling by car.

“There’s inputs into running a tourism business…so think of a float plane business and the cost of aviation fuel to the outfitter,” says Cariou.

“They’ve budgeted at a prediction of what fuel might be prior to the conflict that’s going on right now in the Middle East. You know, those prices have spiked, so their input costs have increased.”

Cariou adds that the increased price of gas is going to affect other aspects of tourism in the region.

“There’s a lot of gas that is supplied in the package of a boat rental and that package price was figured out in the fall, without the ability to predict such a huge spike in oil prices. Food inflation is also in there.”

Cariou suggests that the cool start to the month of May could also affect tourist outfitters up north, because there is still ice on some lakes.

Despite all the negative news Cariou says bookings from tourist outfitters are pretty good to start the season.