When the wheels on the tour buses roll into Kamloops again, there should be an economic spinoff for the BC Wildlife Park.

Tour bus companies with at least 30,000 riders per year can get up to a half-million-dollars in grant funding.

And BC Wildlife Park general manager Glen Grant says that’s good news for the park, which was seeing major growth in tour bus visits before the pandemic.

“For those operators that have had to cancel all their busses, they still maintain a fleet of busses and once you get going, they all have to be in proper operating order, in order to take passengers anywhere.”

The wildlife park will also be eligible for up to $500,000 in grant funding, which it expects to receive by July. Grant says it’s unclear exactly how much money the non-profit park will receive.

As announced yesterday by the B.C. government, restrictions on intra-provincial travel within B.C. are in line to be lifted on June 15, while cross-country travel is expected to be allowed again as soon as Canada Day.