1.2% of "nothing" equals nothing...

The following story is hardly worth talking about when you think about what impact this number may have on our tourism industry..... when you compare the number of tourists that travel by car to PEI against the number by air then I'd say the 1.2 % gain would hardly amount to an hour’s traffic on the bridge... I went to lunch today at the Urban Eatery and I couldn't help but notice that there were hardly any tourists in the mall. I then drove down Queen Street to attend a meeting on Water Street and I started looking at the license plates of the vehicles parked on Queen and if I had to guess I'd say 80% of them were Island cars and the bulk of the balance were shared between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. What was most striking was there were no U.S. vehicles in any of the parking stalls and as I drove back to the office I could hardly find a U. S. plate... I talked to a lot of tourist operators at the "concert" the other night and even though they were quite excited to see the concert's success they all tell me they are down 25 to 35% already... the golf operators tell me they are down about 20% and a lot of our local retailers are experiencing similar trends... thank God we had the "Big Break" otherwise we'd have nothing....
Traffic up at airport despite economic downturn
BY STAFF
The Guardian
Passenger traffic at the Charlottetown Airport was up 1.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, reports the Charlottetown Airport Authority. Year-to-date passenger traffic to the end of June is also up 3.3 per cent compared to the same period as last year. “We are pleased to see the traffic at the Charlottetown Airport is holding strong,” noted Airport CEO Doug Newson. “The economy has impacted air traffic both nationally and regionally, so it is encouraging to see positive year to date results for the Island.”