Seaside Tourism Passport Program

Travellers have even more reason to stop at Sherbrooke Village and other tourism destinations along the Eastern Shore area of the province.

Twenty-four tourism operators between Dartmouth and Moser River are partnering with Sherbrooke Village and its Sherbrooke Now marketing alliance to produce the Seaside Tourism Passport Program.

The campaign kicks off in conjunction with the annual Sherbrooke Show and Shine. It will allow people to stop at designated Seaside Tourism member businesses or provincial visitor information centres and pick up special passports. Visitors can collect stickers from any of the remaining partners and can submit completed passports at the visitor information centres in Sherbrooke Village, Sheet Harbour, Musquodoboit Harbour and Fisherman's Cove. Owners of completed passports will be eligible to win a number of special prizes, including a Sherbrooke Old Fashioned Christmas package.

"The passport idea has been used quite successfully in other jurisdictions," said George Brothers, manager of program development for Sherbrooke Village. "We are hopeful that the idea will take off here as well."

"We've had a great deal of co-operation from seaside businesses, many of whom are also Antigonish Eastern Shore Tourist Association members," he said.

The association has offered the Sherbrooke visitor information centre as one pick-up and collection point. Halifax Regional Municipality Tourism is also a pick-up and collection partner, and the Destination Opportunities Program of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage is a major supporter of the initiative.

In addition to offering participating businesses the opportunity to better market their services and products, the program is designed to help collect data on travel patterns, visitor origin, length of stay and referral methods. This year's program will end on Saturday, Oct. 15 and is expected to return for the full season in 2006.