2011: A Tough Year for Tourism

It's been another tough year for tourism in Nova Scotia and that includes the South Shore. Locally, tourism operators are dealing with a 3 percent dip in occupancy rates while campgrounds and hotels are also facing a 5 percent reduction in total nights sold. Officials are blaming the downward trend on increasing global competition, a difficult economic climate and poor weather. Director of Marketing for the province Kristi Wenous isn't surprised by the latest numbers. "As we understand the pressures and the economic climate - it's understandable discretionary spending such as travel would be down," Meanwhile, road travel and cruise ship passengers into Halifax are also down, while visits to Sydney are on the rise. Air travel did see a positive spike of 9 percent compared to the same time period in 2010. Tourism statistics vary across the province. Details at www.gov.ns.ca/econ/tourism/research/latest-activity-updates.asp.