No surprise for Queens tourism numbers

“This season was quite a struggle,” said Ann Langille, Manager of the South Queens Visitor Information Centre.

This year’s numbers were down 11 per cent from 2007, on top of the 15 per cent from 2006.

She added this was similar to what the rest of Nova Scotia experienced.

Langille said there wasn’t one thing that caused the numbers to decline, but rather a combination of several things. Examples she cited were rising gas prices, confusion over new passport laws, the weather, and the higher valued Canadian dollar.

Who travels during the tourism season also has changed.

American visitors were down considerably, but the number of Nova Scotians traveling accounted for almost half of the tourists coming through Queens Co. Langille expects this trend to continue next year, and may even be a larger percentage.

Across Canada, the number of tourists from Ontario and Alberta also rose.

Visitors from Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom were the dominant travelers from overseas, but the tourist bureau also saw a larger number of tourists from Australia.

Mayor John Leefe said they expected the downturn in visitors from the United States, and the Region is working to promote Queens Co. more in Canada. “We are of the view while it is important to promote the Region of Queens Municipality in the United States, Ontario, Alberta, et cetera are also important,” he said.

An odd trend, Langille noted was the number of scheduled bus tours coming to the tourist bureaus was down; unscheduled stops were greater in number than last year’s scheduled stops.