Ambassatours Will Operate With 250 Fewer Employees, But Has Hopes For Atlantic Bubble
HALIFAX – It’s no secret that Covid-19 has completely rocked the Nova Scotia economy, and one of the hardest-hit sectors has been tourism. With the calendar turning to July, companies have been forced to try and attract local support and visitors from the upcoming Atlantic bubble.
One of Nova Scotia’s biggest tourism companies, Ambassatours, has felt the pinch. The company operates the famous Harbour Hopper tours, hosts weddings aboard ships, owns Murphy’s Restaurant, and hosts tours for the cruise ship industry across Atlantic Canada.
This year Ambassatours is operating with 250 less seasonal employees than normal. This reduction is due in large part to the cancellation of the cruise ship season.
“We just informed them a week or so ago,” said Ambassatours communication manager Terri McCulloch. “We waited and waited…but it was when the cruise season finally got cancelled [that we made the call].”
“We’re fully in support of the government cancelling the season. It’s not about our business, it’s about public safety and, unfortunately, it’s not in the cards this year to be welcoming big vessels like that.”
McCulloch said the past few months have been an emotional time for the tourism sector in Nova Scotia. But she also points out that tourism companies are used to dealing with unexpected blows, from disease to hurricanes.
“The pandemic delivered a shock to our industry and to our business. We’ve gone through some other things over the years, like SARS and things like that which has caused disruption to business,” she said.
“But there’s one thing that companies are when they’re in tourism and that’s nimble and they’re able to respond pretty quickly.”
Ambassatours 2020 season launched on Canada Day, which brought some positive outcomes for the company. Bookings at Murphy’s were doing well leading up to the holiday, and they had plenty of reservations for the Harbour Hopper. The popular tour aboard the amphibious vehicle may get a lot of attention this summer since Ambassatours is offering a 15 percent discount on tickets for Atlantic Canadians.
“We recognize a lot of folks are struggling; they’re off work and they might find the ticket cost a little high, so we wanted to do what we could to offer people a nice little treat,” said McCulloch.
Like other tourism companies, Ambassatours have made some changes to appeal to more local customers. Murphy’s has made changes to its menu for the new season, and the company will be hosting craft beer night featuring local brewers. They’re also focussing on tours that have proven popular with local and regional visitors.
With public gatherings increasing in Nova Scotia, the company has also seen a sudden increase in wedding bookings aboard the Tall Ship Silva, which accommodates 50 people. A lot of people had to cancel wedding plans since March, and now that build up has caused an explosion in lovers tying the knot this summer.
“Because we can have larger group gatherings here in Halifax, we’ve had an upsurge in wedding bookings for this summer,” said McCulloch.
“That’s been fun to facilitate.”
The Atlantic bubble announcement has also proven to be a huge positive for Ambassatours, as there have been no shortage of phone calls from potential tourists in the region. Nova Scotia is also hoping to open its borders to all of Canada by mid-July, but that hasn’t garnered much interest yet from outside Atlantic Canada.
“The Atlantic bubble has resulted in an upsurge in bookings. We haven’t seen many bookings in way of Ontario or Quebec. We had a few inquiries.”