Thursday, August 28, 2008

A "Gentle" Let Down...

Clearly Tourism is down in our sister Provinces, Junes numbers were bad, sunny July was brutal and I expect that when we get our numbers for rainy August they will be equally as bad. We have a beautiful region to visit but we have to focus on upgrading our properties, improving our service levels and be more competitive with our pricing. Maybe it's time for all the Atlantic Provinces to start working together to develop a Regional marketing plan with a very focused strategy and pool our resources so we get the best bang for our buck..... Valerie, we are still waiting for our July numbers....
Nova Scotia sees double-digit drop in July tourist numbers
Thursday, August 28, 2008
CBC News
Nova Scotia had 40,000 fewer visitors in July compared with the same month last year, a drop of 13 per cent.
The provincial government released the latest tourism statistics on Wednesday.
"It's really depressing isn't it, to have July numbers down as opposed to up," said Danny Morton, chairman of the board of directors for the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia.
There were about 273,000 visitors last month, down 13 per cent from July 2007, according to the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.
The number of American tourists was down 26 per cent and there were also fewer visitors from Europe, which tourism officials say is consistent with trends reported across the country.
Visits by road dropped 13 per cent while the number of people who flew into Nova Scotia declined by 12 per cent.
"We want to see the fall turning around," said Morton, who's also general manager of the White Point Beach resort. "We want to be working on access into the province. We want to make it easier for people to come into the province."
The number of people renting hotel rooms or other accommodations remained about the same, which leads Morton to believe that more Nova Scotians are travelling within the province.
There was also a small increase in the number of visitors from Western Canada, though the number from the rest of Canada was down.
"Obviously, I'm not excited by these numbers," said Tourism Minister Bill Dooks. "I had expected some decline in visitors to Nova Scotia. But we've got to look at the positive side of it."

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