Budget Bulletin: Building on Tourism, Cultural Strengths

The 1999-2000 budget provides for Nova Scotia's newest department, Tourism and Culture, with some $40 million to further develop and promote the province's tourism, heritage and cultural strengths.

"We've said that an intensive, sustained effort to promote tourism and culture in Nova Scotia will benefit our economy many times over and improve our quality of life," Finance Minister Neil LeBlanc said today. "A new department and this new budget reinforce our commitment to ensure that the province maximizes the benefits tourism and culture can bring."

The $40-million budget supports a variety of programming commitments designed to realize Nova Scotia's tourism potential as a world-class four-season tourism destination. Funding support is also being used to develop and preserve the arts and Nova Scotia's cultural and natural heritage and cultural industries.

"Investments in tourism and culture bring significant returns to the province," said Rodney MacDonald, Minster of Tourism and Culture. "Each of these two sectors employs tens of thousands of people, with jobs located in every town, village and city across the province."

Opportunities to further develop the province's tourism and cultural strengths also enable community economic development to thrive. In addition, direct revenue to the province continues to grow every year as a result of tourism and cultural initiatives. For example, last year $1.1 billion in tourism revenue generated $106 million in provincial and municipal taxes and employed 33,000 Nova Scotians.

The new department has already made progress on a number of government priorities, including working with the Tourism Partnership Council to expand participation in marketing plan development and to develop themes, programs and initiatives that build on Nova Scotia's reputation as a year-round world-class tourism destination. The new joint industry-government tourism marketing plan will be presented to industry at large at a tourism conference next month.

Additional department priorities include working with the heritage and cultural sector to release, review and implement a culture sector strategy and to quantify the economic value of the cultural sector. As well, the department will work with Nova Scotia Economic Development to promote the province's craft industry as an integral and important sector of the economy. The value of the cultural sector, as an industry, is estimated at well over $500 million.