Tourism up provincially; local industry hopes for better times

The latest stats from the government indicate that more than two million people visited Nova Scotia in 2007 from January to the end of November, 34,700 more than the same period the previous year.

Room nights sold were up by 46,000, a two per cent increase over 2006, while the preliminary revenue estimate for the tourism sector in Nova Scotia in 2007 is $1.33 billion, up two per cent from 2006, according to the government’s figures.

Locally, meanwhile, tourism people hope to rebound from what for many of them was a very poor season, some having described it as the worst they had seen.

Tourism figures provided by the government offer a comparison of recent years, including a category called “visitation by entry point” that shows the downward trend in the number of people entering Nova Scotia through Yarmouth.

According to these numbers, 96,000 visitors entered the province through Yarmouth in 2002, but the count fell from there – to 84,300 in 2003 to 76,200 (’04), 54,300 (’05) and 43,900 (’06). The total for 2007 has yet to be posted.

Product development is seen as crucial if the area’s tourism numbers are to improve and that was the focus of a series of sessions conducted last fall by Destination Southwest Nova Scotia.

“Tourism is changing and it’s changing in rural Nova Scotia,” said Bob Benson of the Churchill Mansion. “I don’t think that we’re going to see in the next short while, or the next five or 10 years, a return to tourism as we have known it in the past.”

He feels southwestern Nova Scotia has things that could attract visitors – things that accentuate the region’s natural environment, for example – provided they are properly developed and marketed.

Referring to people who work in tourism and who have experienced the downturn, he said, “We’ve tried (to remain hopeful each year, believing that) this is going to work or something else is going to work, but it just isn’t there.”