N.S. Pumps $12M Into 2022 Tourism Initiatives
HALIFAX–The province will pump $12-million into tourism and marketing initiatives in 2022, as the tourism sector prepares for a summer season free of Covid-19 restrictions.
About $9-million of that money will go directly to registered tourist accommodations to help them with marketing to attract tourists in 2022.
The rest of the money will go toward attracting visitors to the province and encouraging them to explore, as well as increasing online booking capabilities for businesses.
Darlene Grant Fiander, the president of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia (TIANS), says the investment will be a big boost to an industry that’s been “decimated” by the Covid-19 pandemic over the last two years.
She pointed out that Nova Scotia’s tourism economy lost about $1.6-billion in both 2020 and 2021 and, as of today, the industry is still down about 20,000 jobs.
In 2019, the last tourism season before the pandemic, tourism brought about $2.6-billion into the province. In 2020 and 2021, tourism generated about $1-billion.
Meanwhile, Tourism Nova Scotia says it’s spending millions on new marketing campaigns to lure visitors to the province this year.
Its “Calling All Doers” campaign is targeted travellers from Ontario, Quebec, and the northeastern United States, as well as the United Kingdom and Germany, for two weeks in February.
The agency says the goal is to “catch people in those farther away markets when they are in the early stages of planning their summer travel.:
The campaign will launch in Atlantic Canada in early April.
It and other campaigns that will run in the summer, fall, and winter will cost the agency $8-million this year. Tourism Nova Scotia claims every dollar it spent on advertising in 2021 generated $45 in tourism spending in the province.