Statistics Canada has updated the Provincial and Territorial Satellite Account, a measure of the size of provincial tourism as measured by expenditures, GDP and employment.

The Provincial and Territorial Tourism Satellite Account contains some important definitions. "Tourism industries" are industries which would cease to exist or would exist at significantly reduced levels of activity in the absence of tourism (e.g. air transportation, accommodation). "Tourism products" are those for which a significant part of their total demand comes from tourists.  Tourism expenditures also include spending by tourists on other products that are not considered to be tourism products.  

In Nova Scotia's latest Tourism Satellite Accounts for 2019, there was $2.629 billion in tourism expenditures in the province.  Tourism products accounted for $2.1542 billion while other products purchased by tourists amounted to $474.8 million. 

Nova Scotia residents spending within the province were the largest part of tourism expenditures.  Domestic tourism expenditures were $1,164.7 billion in 2019: $931.9 million on tourism products along with $232.8 million on other products. 

Visitors to Nova Scotia from other provinces spent $823.0 million in 2019: $697.7 million in tourism products and $125.3 million in other products. 

International visitors to Nova Scotia made $641.5 million in tourism expenditures in 2019: $524.8 million in tourism products and $116.7 million in other products.

Tourism products can be broken down into four main categories: transportation, accommodations, food and beverage services and other tourism products.  The largest parts of transportation expenditures were air travel as well as fuel, vehicle repair/parts and vehicle rentals.  Hotels made up the largest part of accommodation expenditures while restaurants make up the bulk of food and beverage service expenditures.  Recreation and entertainment spending was the largest tourism product category outside of transportation, accommodation and food/beverage services.  Among specific tourism-related "other products", groceries were the largest individual item.  

Tourism expenditures of $2,629.0 million generated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $998.1 million, which was 2.3% of Nova Scotia's total GDP in 2019. Across Canada, tourism GDP accounted for an average of 2.0% of GDP. Tourism share of GDP was highest in Prince Edward Island and British Columbia (followed by Nova Scotia).  The lowest share of tourism in GDP was in Saskatchewan. 

Tourism accounted 4.4% of total employment in 2019.  This employment figure includes both full time and part time employment.  Nationally, tourism accounted for 3.6% of employment.  As with GDP, tourism had the highest portion employment in Prince Edward Island and British Columbia (followed by Nova Scotia).  Tourism as a share of employment was lowest in Manitoba.

Tourism jobs accounted for 2.7% of Nova Scotia's labour income (third highest after Prince Edward Island anad British Columbia). Tourism generated 2.3% of national labour income.  

Part time and lower wage employment is more common in tourism industries than in the rest of the economy.  Average labour income per tourism job was $33,200 in Nova Scotia, about 50% of the provincial average labour income per job.  

Domestic Demand (travel by residents from within a province) accounted for just under half of tourism product spending (44.3%), with the balance made up between interprovincial exports (visitors from another province in Canada: 31.3%) and international exports (visitors from another country: 24.4%). 

The domestic share of tourism expenditures was highest in Saskatchewan.  The lowest domestic share of tourism expenditure was in Prince Edward Island. 

The interprovincial shares of tourism expenditures were highest in Prince Edward Island and lowest in Quebec and Ontario. 

International share of tourism expenditure was highest in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island.  The lowest shares of international expenditures in tourism were in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Looking at tourism expenditures by residents of each province, only Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia reported more inbound tourism spending per capita than outbound tourism spending by residents.

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 24-10-0004-01  Provincial and territorial tourism supply and expenditure (x 1,000,000); Table 24-10-0042-01  Provincial and territorial gross domestic product (GDP) and employment generated by tourism and related measures (x 1,000,000); Table 24-10-0044-01  Interprovincial tourism expenditures (x 1,000,000)

Statistics Canada released updated data on monthly business openings and closures for November 2022. The data are seasonally adjusted.

Month-over-month (November 2022 vs October 2022, seasonally adjusted)

The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia decreased 0.2% from October to November 2022 (falling to 20,441 active businesses); this was sixth consecutive monthly decline in active businesses in Nova Scotia.                                                           

Nationally, active businesses declined by 0.4%. Most provinces reported lower numbers of active businesses in November 2022 compared with October 2022, except Prince Edward Island that reported growth.  The largest declines were reported in Ontario (-0.45%) and British Columbia (-0.53%).

Year-over-year (November 2022 vs November 2021)

Compared with November 2021, the number of active businesses was up 0.8% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were almost 1.0% higher compared with November 2021. Nine provinces reported a higher number of active businesses compared with November 2021, with the largest increase in Prince Edward Island. The only decline was reported in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The number of active businesses in the Halifax and East Hants Census Metropolitan Area was up 5.8% from November 2021 to November 2022. However, the East Hants portion of the CMA was only added in June 2022 and this accounts for much of the growth compared with November 2021 (which did not include East Hants in the Halifax CMA). 

Among CMAs, Belleville reported the largest decline of active businesses over the last year.  The cities with the largest rises in the number of active businesses were Windsor and Peterborough.

Compared with November 2021, the number of active Nova Scotia businesses in November 2022 was lower in forestry and fishing, mining/oil/gas (a small number to start with), manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation, information/culture, and personal/repair services.  From November 2021 to November 2022, there were notable percentage increases in the number of active businesses in utilities (also starting from a small number) as well as stronger increases in construction, real estate/leasing, professional/technical, administrative/support services (including call centres), arts/entertainment/recreation and accommodation/food services.

Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for forestry/fishing, mining/oil/gas, utilities, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and finance/insurance/management. There were notable increases in real estate/leasing as well as arts/entertainment/recreation, construction, professional/technical services, and accommodation/food services. 

Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with November 2021, the number of active tourism-related businesses was up 1.6% in Nova Scotia as of November 2022, with consistent falls across all subsectors excluding accommodation and food/beverages.   

Nationally growth in tourism-related businesses was 1.0% over the last year with the only decline in transportation for tourism and stronger growth in travel services (which were down substantially during the height of the pandemic).  

Trends

A business will be classified as 'opening' if it had no employment in the previous month and then has employment in the next month. A business is 'closing' if it had employment in the previous month and no employment in the current month. For opening and closing, the reason could be a permanent change (i.e. business exit) or temporary for reasons such as seasonal operations, capital maintenance or restructuring. Continuing business are those that had employment in both the current and previous month. Active businesses are the sum of continuing and opening business in the current month.

The rate at which business either opened, continued or closed can be examined to see how the number of active businesses has changed.  The calculation for the opening, continuing and closure rates are based on the number of active businesses in the previous month. 

Most businesses continue operating each month. In November 2022, Nova Scotia's business continuing rate was 96.0% (95.7% nationally). Quebec reported the highest business continuing rate (96.4%) while Prince Edward Island reported the lowest (94.5%).

Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 3.87% as of November 2022 (4.05% nationally).  Prince Edward Island had the highest business opening rate (5.81%) while Quebec had the lowest (3.29%).

Nova Scotia's business closing rate was 4.31% in November 2022 (4.70% nationally). Prince Edward Island reported the highest business closing rate (5.21%) while Quebec had the lowest business closing rate (3.83%).

Retail, health/social, manufacturing, and construction contributed the most to declining active businesses in Nova Scotia from October to November 2022. 

The source data is seasonally adjusted. The data may not aggregate due to firms being classified into multiple industry or geography.

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0270-01 Experimental estimates for business openings and closures for Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas; Methodology: Business Opening and Closing