Tourism Coverage Worth $28.8 Million

An estimated 145 million people around the world read about Nova Scotia last year, as a result of various media contact programs operated by Nova Scotia Economic Development and Tourism.

The value of the publicity from various feature stories and event coverage was $28.8 million, an increase of more than $3.6 million over 1996.

The familiarization program for tourism media, supported by significant private sector co-operation and investment, takes visiting travel writers to the places, attractions and accommodations that the province has to offer. It supports the province's advertising campaigns by obtaining credible third-party endorsements in influential publications.

A new program, which involves sending a "complete travel writer's companion" binder to selected media, and regularly updating it with new material, was started last year.

Some of the highlights of 1997's media coverage:

• A Canadian Press story by Jim Fox prominently featured autumn colours in Cape Breton and the Pumpkin People of Kentville, based on items highlighted in the travel writers' binder. The story was carried in at least 24 daily papers across the country and reached an estimated two million people.

• The New York Times ran a front-page travel story on Nova Scotia in August 1997. The item featured Halifax, the Cabot Trail and Annapolis Royal and included 11 colour photos. The publicity value was almost $2.3 million.

• The Houston Chronicle carried a two-page travel section feature story about Nova Scotia last September, including seven colour photos. The paper has a circulation of 764,000; the publicity value was $828,000.

• The German magazine Globo carried more than 17 colour pages on travel in Nova Scotia. The publication's circulation is 140,000; the publicity was worth $989,000 to the province.

• Last fall's Atlantic Monthly piece on fall foliage in the Maritimes, entitled Leaf-Peeping in Peace, devoted most of its space, three and a half pages, to Nova Scotia. The publicity value was $392,000.

The new binder was well received by travel writers, editors and those promoting Nova Scotia overseas. A Canadian travel writer called the binder the best thing he's seen for journalists in North America. A travel writer in Massachusetts wrote to say that "the new binder form is fantastic ... a handy all in one place' format."

The media tally does not include television and radio. It does not, for instance, include the impact of TNN's coverage of the opening of the Hank Snow Museum in Liverpool. The network ran a seven-minute segment on two programs, Today's Country and This Week in Country Music. With a reach of 74 million households in North America, the publicity value would be about $320,000.

Doug Fawthrop, chair of the Tourism Partnership Council, was pleased by the results. "The media relations efforts are an important and integral part of the marketing of Nova Scotia," he said. "Increases will inevitably lead to better awareness of the province as a travel destination."