News Release Archive

ECONOMIC RENEWAL--TOURISM INDUSTRY OPTIMISTIC
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While a number of factors have combined to dampen Nova Scotia's
tourism season to date---namely the Atlanta Olympics, the 1996
U.S. presidential election and just plain bad weather---the
general forecast from the province's tourism operators is sunny
skies ahead.

The good news is, based on a trend that's been developing over
the last five years, the peak tourism period is shifting to the
latter part of the season. That means September is growing at
greater pace than June. 

Compared to September ,1991 road visitations, a good indicator of
the number of people that visit Nova Scotia has grown by 12
percent and now represents 17 percent of peak tourism traffic.
That increase translates into 18,000 more visitors in
September,1995 than for the same month in 1991. All indications
are that this trend will continue.

Other statistics from Tourism Nova Scotia over the last few years
have indicated a shift in travelling patterns with heavy
visitation beginning in late July and running through October.

"We've been fighting a lot of factors beyond our control this
year," said Economic Renewal Minister Richie Mann. "Now we're
seeing visitation and business starting to climb and more
Atlantic Canadian licence plates on our roads."

Regular service from Air Nova, Air Canada, Canadian, Air
Atlantic, Northwest Airlines as well as the addition of North
American flights from Canada 3000, have driven Canadian air
visitation to Nova Scotia up 13% over last year. 

International flights from Air Canada, Canadian Airlines, Canada
3000, Icelandair and Air Transat have also been popular with
Europeans. 

Icelandair's direct service from Reykjavik, Iceland, to Halifax
is also experiencing similar success.  Hans Indridason,
Icelandair's manager for Canada, says Icelandair's service is
doing "better than expected."  He said bookings for August and
September look good with 80% of business coming from strategic
markets in Germany, Scandinavia and Iceland.

While Americans are opting to stay close to their television sets
and keep on top of the upcoming election, there is good news on
the homefront. Nova Scotia is the top contender in the race to
attract visitors from other Atlantic Canadian provinces.  

Dan Brennan, executive director of the Nova Scotia Marketing
Agency, said the inter-provincial markets are vital to the
province's tourism industry. "Atlantic Canada is our largest
North American market and the fact that 13,000 more people from
New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Newfoundland came to Nova Scotia speaks
volumes about our tourism product, our operators and the
effectiveness of our marketing strategies." The jump in Atlantic
Canadian road traffic represents a five percent increase over
1995 year to date statistics.

More Canadians are choosing to vacation within the country, and
they still prefer Nova Scotia.  The Canadian Automobile
Association and its 3.8 million members gave Nova Scotia an
overwhelming "thumbs up," ranking the province as the number one
most "driven to" location in North America from April to June for
the second year in a row.  

The top spot was based on a questionnaire circulated to more than
130 offices across the country. The top 10 destinations based on
the association's ranking system, in order, were Nova Scotia,
Ontario, British Columbia, Florida, Alberta, South Carolina,
Massachusetts, New York, California and Quebec.

-30-

Contact: Marsha Andrews 902-424-4207

mfm                      Aug.23 , 1996      2:10 p.m.