{"id":7339,"date":"2024-05-22T09:56:32","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T12:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7339"},"modified":"2024-05-22T10:09:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T13:09:54","slug":"sunny-outlook-for-2024-tourist-season-on-south-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/05\/22\/sunny-outlook-for-2024-tourist-season-on-south-shore\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunny outlook for 2024 tourism season on South Shore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stephanie Miller Vincent is the co-ordinator of the South Shore Tourism Co-operative. The organization held its annual general meeting Tuesday at the Quarterdeck Resort in Summerville Centre. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

Tourism operators on Nova Scotia\u2019s South Shore are looking forward to a good season, optimistic that visitors will return to the area after a disappointing 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephanie Miller Vincent is the co-ordinator of the South Shore Tourism Co-operative, which counts almost 120 members from Peggys Cove to Barrington.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a resilient group. We\u2019re also a really optimistic group. And weather will play a factor, the economy will play factor, but we know we\u2019ve got first-class product, we\u2019ve got things to offer that nobody else has in other regions of Nova Scotia or Canada, so we\u2019re looking forward to a really great year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The co-operative held its annual general meeting on Tuesday at the Quarterdeck Resort on picturesque Summerville Beach. About 40 members from hotels, restaurants, municipalities and chambers of commerce around the South Shore got an update on the group\u2019s efforts to boost tourism and to extend the season beyond the summer and early fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wildfires, floods and rain contributed to a challenging 2023 tourist season for the area\u2019s businesses. The South Shore, the Yarmouth and Acadian Shores and Cape Breton saw declines in room nights sold compared with 2022, while accommodation numbers in the rest of the province were higher than the year before.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hotel stays, or room nights sold, on the South Shore for the May to October 2023 period were down about five per cent over 2022.<\/p>\n

Those at the meeting on Tuesday said early indications are that this year\u2019s bookings are up over last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jill Forrest, the general manager of the Quarterdeck, said early bookings look good.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s promising for this upcoming year for sure. We are in a last-minute trend, it seems. Even last year, people tend to wait and see what the weather\u2019s going to do and pull that final trigger on booking and knowing where they’re headed. But things are looking very good for the year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Susan Corkum-Greek, MLA for Lunenburg and Nova Scotia\u2019s minister of economic development, told the co-operative\u2019s members that she checked with the province\u2019s tourism officials before the meeting to get an idea of what the season might bring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have early indicators of early bookings. We know for instance that the Yarmouth ferry has a higher percentage of advance bookings, The hotel association is saying that. Room nights are not the only indicator but it shows buy-in intention and says something of length of stay.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The co-operative\u2019s annual lobster crawl in February always attracts a lot of attention. This year, the group says its marketing efforts resulted in more than 100 media headlines, reaching about 270 million people, with an advertising value of just under $7 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 100 of the co-operative\u2019s members held 128 events around the South Shore connected with the lobster crawl. And just under 80 per cent of those who attended a lobster crawl event were from Nova Scotia, according to a survey conducted by the co-operative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miller Vincent says it\u2019s always difficult to predict what the season will be like. But she expects staycations to be big again this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You\u2019re always trying to look at the data,” she says. “We always look at the price of gas, but we\u2019ve got more flights coming into Halifax so that\u2019s important. The economy will probably keep people closer to home and looking to see not only what\u2019s in their own neighborhood but what\u2019s next door. Staycations have become more important than before Covid because we recognize what we\u2019ve got here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/southshoretourismagmmay2124.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tourism operators on Nova Scotia\u2019s South Shore are looking forward to a good season, optimistic that visitors will return to the area after a disappointing 2023. Stephanie Miller Vincent is the co-ordinator of the South Shore Tourism Co-operative, which counts almost 120 members from Peggys Cove to Barrington.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re a resilient group. We\u2019re also a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[1635,1686,2212,1719,2215,2213,830,1720,1706,1707,2214,2211,1648],"class_list":["post-7339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-barrington","tag-economic-development","tag-jill-forrest","tag-nova-scotia-lobster-crawl","tag-peggys-cove","tag-quarterdeck-resort","tag-south-shore","tag-south-shore-tourism","tag-south-shore-tourism-co-operative","tag-stephanie-miller-vincent","tag-summerville-beach","tag-susan-corkum-greek","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7345,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7339\/revisions\/7345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}