New Doers and Dreamers Guide
The vibrant colours and graceful old buildings of Lunenburg, selected as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1995, proudly proclaim Nova Scotia to the world from the front cover of this year's Complete Guide for Doers and Dreamers.
The 400-page travel guide includes more than 3,000 listings of accommodations, campgrounds, festivals, museums, adventure tourism operators and eating establishments.
It is the flagship of a series of publications that promote Nova Scotia as a travel destination. Others include shorter vacation guides in French and German, guides to festivals and events, and specialized brochures such as the interpretive guide to Titanic sites.
This year's Complete Guide for Doers and Dreamers contains twice as many restaurant listings as the 1998 guide. There are more websites and e-mail addresses than ever before, many of which are linked directly to Virtual Nova Scotia, the website of the Nova Scotia Marketing Agency. The changes reflect comments by the guide's users, and research in the tourism marketplace.
Doug Fawthrop, chair of the Tourism Partnership Council, is pleased with this year's guide. "Although it uses a familiar format, which has proved so successful before, this year's book also includes improvements and additions to editorial material based on customer and user feedback, with co-operation from the tourism industry and from area tourism associations. Such customer research is essential," he said.
"Research has shown that the vast majority of our visitors consider the travel guide to be the most useful source of information for planning their vacation," said Manning MacDonald, Minister of Economic Development and Tourism. "As well as helping to make visiting Nova Scotia fun-filled and worry-free, this year's guide, in both its size and content, reflects the growing strength and confidence of our tourism sector."
In addition to the Lunenburg waterfront, the cover also displays photos of Halifax, Fortress of Louisbourg, Bay of Fundy and Acadian dancers.
More than half a million copies of the 1999 edition have been printed and will be circulated in response to inquiries, through consumer and travel trade shows, at Canadian embassies and consulates, and through the provincial visitor information system.
Copies of the travel guide are available throughout North America by calling the Nova Scotia information and reservation service at 1-800-565-0000, through the World Wide Web at http://explore.gov.ns.ca or by writing to the Nova Scotia Marketing Agency, P.O. Box 519, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2R7.
For the first time a French version of the guide will be published in March to support a marketing campaign in Quebec.