Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Here We Go Again...

I get a great charge out of the Spin Doctors at Tourism...they would certainly fit well on George Bush's Speech Writing Team. Let's face it... look at the bridge numbers ...it's been a "Gentle Letdown" to say the least and to try and say Islanders travelling in our own Province is keeping us going is a bunch of crap...you could spin it another way - that Islanders are doing so poorly that they can't afford to get away, which doesn't say much for how our Government is handling the economy. A good start to the 2009 season would be to live up to the Premier's commitment and "sell the golf courses" and get some operators in that will reinvest and bring some new ideas and promotions to this industry that would lure more customers...Please, please, please stop the spin doctor crap and focus on some planning...
Islanders save P.E.I. tourism in August
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
CBC News
Despite miserable weather and a prediction of poor market conditions, tourism dropped only slightly on P.E.I. in August, thanks largely to people vacationing at home.
Overall, occupancy rates were down only 0.4 per cent in August.
The Island tourism industry appears to have been saved from disaster by Islanders travelling in their own province. Room nights sold to people from P.E.I. were up by a third over August 2007. At the same time, actual visitors appeared to be down, with travellers over Confederation Bridge and on the ferry dropping significantly. Air travel continued a long run of double-digit increases.
Travellers
By air
+17%
By ferry
-5%
By bridge
-9%
But results were mixed, depending on region and type of accommodation. Campgrounds in particular had a disastrous August, with occupancy down 15 per cent from last year.
"I knew it was down right from the get-go, really," said Bill Hogg, the owner of Sunset Campground in Cavendish.
"You keep hoping week after week. Like we would always say, it doesn't get going until mid-July, then third week of July. Then when it rained the first two weeks of August, I knew we were done." August ended up setting a P.E.I. record for rainfall in the month, with triple the average falling. "When you look at the report, you can see a mix of numbers, some good and some not as good as we would like to see," said Tourism Minister Valerie Docherty in a release.
"Global tourism is facing shifts in markets and visitation numbers. Prince Edward Island is very much holding its own considering the strong potential to break even at the end of the 2008 season. With that said, we must focus our sights on 2009 and address with industry how we get these numbers up."
Activities
Golf
-14%
Provincial museums
-9%
The South Shore region, which includes Charlottetown, was up 4.3 per cent and hotels, motels and resorts were up 1.3 per cent. Points East occupancy was down 7.5 per cent. Bed and breakfast nights sold fell 4.6 per cent.
The success of Charlottetown in August was reflected in the numbers for the activities in which people took part. The Charlottetown Festival reported its best season ever and visitors to the historic Beaconsfield home were up 42 per cent, while historic sites in every other part of the province suffered. Golf was down 14 per cent.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When talking to a colleague from Halifax, I asked why he hadn't been to the Island recently. He offered up a couple of interesting thoughts - "Why leave Nova Scotia in the summer? It has golf, beaches, culture, attractions, etc" was his first thought. He then went on to say that PEI has become too expensive. He quipped "I can take my family of four to Vegas for a week in the winter cheaper than spending a week on the Island in the summer." Why leave NS for a week in the summer when you can avoid a week of Maritime winter? Food for thought. Good Blog by the way!

Anonymous said...

It looks like 'Springsteen in Summerside' during Old Home Week might have been a good idea !

Instead we opted for 1,500 local fans to gather in Pownal in late September... maybe thi is where the Immigrant money went (down the toilet).

Poor PEI screwed again and again!!