New Travel Guide Makes its Way Around the World
Nova Scotia's 2000 travel guide is making its way throughout the Maritimes and around the world.
This year's Complete Guide for Doers and Dreamers includes information on more than 1,000 accommodations, hundreds of festivals and events, the province's many museums, outdoor and nature tourism operations and restaurants. The Cabot Trail is featured on the cover, along with photos of Halifax, Fortress of Louisbourg and the Bay of Fundy.
"This guide is the principal vehicle for selling Nova Scotia as a travel destination," said Rodney MacDonald, Minister of Tourism and Culture. "In addition to generating tourism traffic, the guide helps keep visitors in the province longer and it serves as a resource to the tourism industry."
The guide will be distributed to potential visitors in response to provincial marketing activities planned for 2000. The aggressive marketing plan developed by the Tourism Partnership Council aims for 6.5 per cent year-over-year growth in overall revenue and a five per cent increase in overall visitation.
Key tourism markets are Atlantic Canada, including Nova Scotia, and Quebec, Ontario, New England and the mid-Atlantic States. In Europe, key markets are primarily the United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia and Iceland.
"Our activities in 2000 will focus on extending the season, growing select niche markets like golf, and promoting mega-events such as the Tall Ships, as well as taking Canada's seacoast to the world using the Internet," said council chair Doug Fawthrop, managing director of White Point Beach Resort.
The travel guide is one in a series of publications designed to promote Nova Scotia as a tourist destination for 2000. A French version of the Doers and Dreamers guide will soon follow, along with a festival and events guide, a golf guide and an outdoor and nature lovers guide.
"As always, we anticipate the release of the travel guide. It's our industry's major marketing tool and there are no others like it in North America," said Judith Cabrita, managing director of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia. "Our visitors compliment the guide highly and use it as a bible in their travels across the province. It's the Nova Scotia tourism industry's encyclopaedia."
Copies of this year's guide are available throughout North America by calling the Nova Scotia information and reservation service at 1-800-565-0000, through the web site at http://explorens.com , or by writing to the Marketing Division, Department of Tourism and Culture, P.O. Box 456, Halifax, NS, B3J 2R5.
Nova Scotia's tourism industry experienced double-digit growth in 1999, making it the strongest year ever. Revenues reached $1.27 billion, representing a 16 per cent gain on top of 1998's record breaking $1.1 billion. Overall visitation was also up about 15 per cent.
The revenue generated from tourism means jobs for some 36,600 Nova Scotians with an estimated 1999 payroll of $500 million. It also means $120 million in provincial and municipal sales tax revenues. Tourism is also a significant export industry, with more than half of the money generated coming from outside the province.