Tourist “spotting” now a nationwide phenomenon

Tourism operators wondering how the 2008 season may be shaping up may have seen the reports below from the CBC and The Canadian Press. 

The reports show that the March 2008 figures for foreign visitors to Canada are 12.4% lower than a year ago.

While visitors from the US make up a large proportion of this decline, there are declining numbers from Germany,  but gains from Italy and the Netherlands. The number of overseas visits to Canada fell by 3 per cent in March 2008 to 384,000.

With one in ten jobs related to the tourism sector in Canada, the tourism figures are beginning to make national headlines. Operators, on the other hand, have experienced the challenges of doing business in an ever increasingly competitive market ever since 9/11. 

“Tourist spotting,” rather like bird spotting, has been a local phenomenon in small coastal communities, like Canso in Nova Scotia, for some time. This sport is now apparently becoming a national phenomenon as gas prices and our exchange rate relative to European currencies and to the US dollar have changed foreign visitors’ perception of their purchasing power.

After SARS, Toronto’s tourism sector was decimated. With that hardened 20-20 vision of the SARS experience, Toronto has re-emerged as an industry leader in the tourism sector, positioning itself at the luxury end of the spectrum and being unabashed that their hotel rates now have the eighth highest ADR (average daily rate) worldwide.

In Nova Scotia, our learning curve may be a little flatter. Operators are confronted with the anomaly of having to position themselves between two much more divergent markets than Toronto experiences, the domestic and the foreign.

Despite the tourism research findings that pricing is apparently the fifth or sixth consideration in selecting a tourism destination, experienced market researchers in other industries make allowances for the mismatch between what consumers say they do and what they actually do.

So although people may answer a questionnaire with answers that indicate that a number of other factors are more important than price, when it actually comes to making their reservations, price may suddenly take a flying leap towards the top of the list.

This discrepancy is much more likely to have a direct impact on the domestic than on the foreign market: the domestic market is essentially a fixed entity while the foreign market comprises a constantly changing profile of various countries depending on their relative economic success in any given year.

The domestic market may just turn out to be a whole lot more price sensitive than we have been led to believe it is, just at a time when the tourism marketing mantra is “go luxury, go niche.’

The “propensity to spend,” issue is also a little more nuanced. While the propensity to spend may depend more on the visitor’s experiential rating than on the visitor’s gross income, it does assume that you have already managed to lure the visitor to your destination.

 

Referenced articles:

CBC – The number of foreign visitors to Canada in March was the lowest since record-keeping began in 1972, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

About 2.26 million visits to this country were recorded that month, down 12.6 per cent from the same month a year earlier.

A big drop in American visitors was behind the decline. Only 730,000 same-day car trips were made by U.S. motorists in March. That was down 2.5 per cent from the month before and a 24 per cent plunge from a year ago as the price of gas, a high Canadian dollar and a weak U.S. economy kept Americans close to home.

The number of overseas visits fell by 3 per cent to 384,000.

“Travel declined in eight of Canada’s top 12 overseas markets, with the strongest decreases in travel from Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong,” said Statistics Canada.

Canadians, on the other hand, were showing no reluctance to travel, as the number of out-of-country trips rose in every category.

Canadians made 2.1 million same-day car trips to the U.S. in March, up 1.5 per cent from February and an increase of 9.5 per cent from year-ago levels.

The total number of trips to the U.S. rose to 3.8 million.

 ”The level of Canadian travel to the United States observed in the past six months has been the highest since 1998,” Statistics Canada reported.

 Overnight plane trips to the U.S. hit a new record high for the fourth month in a row.

 Travel by Canadians to countries other than the U.S. also hit a record high

 

The Canadian Press – OTTAWA – Travel to Canada hit a record low for the fifth straight month in March, following big declines in both same-day car trips from the United States and the number of visitors from overseas nations.

Statistics Canada reports foreign visitors made 2.3 million trips to Canada in March, the lowest since record keeping started in 1972.

That’s a one per cent decline from February, and a 12.4 per cent drop from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the number of Canadian trips abroad rose 1.4 per cent to almost 4.5 million, the vast majority (85 per cent) to the United States.

U.S. residents made only 730,000 same-day car trips to Canada in March, down 2.5 per cent from the previous month.

Same-day car travel to Canada has fallen by 41.1 per cent in two years.

Overseas travellers to Canada made 384,000 trips in March, down three per cent.

Travel declined in eight of Canada’s top 12 overseas markets, with the strongest decreases in travel from Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong.

There were gains in visitors from India, Italy and the Netherlands.

Overall, Canadians made 3.8 million trips to the United States in March, up 1.6 per cent from February. Canadian travel to the United States in the past six months has been the highest since 1998.

Same-day car travel to the United States increased 1.5 per cent to 2.1 million trips, while overnight car travel rose 1.9 per cent to 991,000 trips.

Overnight plane trips to the United States set a new record high for the fourth straight month.

Canadian travel to countries other than the United States increased 0.4 per cent to a record 670,000 – the 10th month in the past year in which a new record high was set.

Marketing the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia

The RTIA that has been the key marketing anchor for the Eastern Shore, AESTA, is heading to Toronto for the Toronto Trade Show, opening on June 20th, as a morphed acronym. For the first time AESTA will be representing only the Eastern Shore and not Antigonish at the trade show, where it will form part of the Nova Scotia pavilion. The “A” has been taken out of AESTA!

Now for many AESTA operators, the split will seem logical. It has for many, always been a tentative marriage between the Eastern shore tourism operators and those from Antigonish, as far as where the focus for marketing the region is concerned.

The changes come as a result of the new tourism regions crafted by the Dept. of Tourism, Culture and Heritage and form the basis of the Nova Scotia’s 2008 Doer’s and Dreamer’s Guide.

More changes are coming though. At a meeting on May 7th at the DeCoste Centre in Pictou, the consultants for the three RTIA’s, AESTA, CNTA, and Pictou County, presented a new model for the proposed Destination Marketing Organization, (DMO) that has already been agreed to, at least in principle. With more than half of the participants present tourism operators from all three regions, the interest level in the new DMO model was keen.

The objective of the new DMO, as per the handout, “A New tourism Business model for Central/East/North Nova Scotia, is defined as:
-Establish the broader region as a defined tourism destination, with a strategy and business model to make it successful and sustainable in today’s changing and increasingly competitive marketplace.
-A key element is achieving a sufficient and sustainable funding base.

It wasn’t long though before the realization that the “sustainable funding base” has to come from somewhere- and in the proposed model it comes in the form of a levy or as a Destination Marketing Fee- that there was some disagreement as to where that funding base should come from: “Who me?”

Based on the larger fixed roof accommodations, ie. accommodations with more than 20 rooms, the levy or DMF method of collecting marketing funds for the DMO assumes that industry leaders in the tourism sector will take the lead in the new DMO.

Certainly there are few who would say that Cape Breton’s marketing strategy for the region has not been successful. This, it would seem is the opportunity for AESTA, (without the “A”,) Central Nova, and Pictou County to bring some of the same aggressive marketing strategies as Cape Breton manages, for our region’s operators.

Now to give you some idea of the dog eat dog tourism marketplace just in Ontario, we have seen a dramatic increase in the TV advertising there over the past few months of 2008. Not only has Ontario stepped up its own advertising campaign to keep Ontarians within the province, but other provinces have also stepped in with dramatically increased marketing initiatives over previous years. Add to that the newer markets, like Egypt, and the further afield but yes- we would like some of the Ontarian tourism pie, such as California, and New Jersey, and Ontario has become “the jewel in the crown” to fight for, as far as tourism marketing goes.

Over the winter months there was however a total absence of any TV advertising for Nova Scotia in Ontario, despite the NB, PEI and Newfoundland campaigns- all strong, especially Newfoundland, and the new campaigns by NJ, BC, Egypt, LA, California, Australia and Ireland. Ireland was also a very strong advertising campaign. Hawaii is another recent destination competing for TV spots in Ontario. Of course, this list doesn’t yet include the regular campaigns still to come from Quebec, NY, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia. Nor does it include the sporadic TV campaigns of previous years from Texas, Vermont, Colorado and New Mexico. Clearly all these destinations recognize that Ontario affords a high population density, (40% of the national market,) of which half is in the Greater Toronto Area, (GTA). It also has a high medium income, and a population that is used to travelling.

I personally noted that my web traffic was up at its highest ever in March 2008. This may indeed have been the result of one snow storm after another in Ontario but that isn’t the whole story. In February 2008, DRUM played to enchanted Toronto audiences. The subsequent snow storms in Ontario certainly helped convert some of this enchantment into tourism business for Nova Scotia, I am sure. A peak in my own web stats usually occurs as a direct result of a marketing initiative. I am sure that the same is true on a provincial scale. So clearly we need a strong DMO for our region that has the funding base for major advertising campaigns and which can compete in an ever more complex marketing landscape.

   

Road trip from Toronto to Canso, Nova Scotia

We followed the Downeast signs on route #1 hoping for ocean views!

View of ocean at Trenton Maine

Trenton, Maine

Bar Harbour Waterfront

The Cat High Speed Car Ferry to Nova Scotia Sign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So finally I am back in Nova Scotia after the long drive from Toronto, Ontario through Quebec and this time a detour through Maine with a quick visit to Bar Harbour! The weather was amazing the entire trip and the long winter seemed sudddenly to give way to babbling brooks and rivers and almost green fields.

In southern Quebec maple syrup collection was ongoing in the numerous sugar bush that we passed.

Now one of the amusing things that happened along the trip which we planned using Google trip planner was at Sherbrooke, where the Google directions sent us down  unpaved roads to bypass the town of Sherbrooke. So we are travelling a total of two thousand kilometers across four provinces. You can imagine our surprise then when the Google directions take us on a detour of the Sherbrook area sugar bush. Fortunately for us the snow was all but melted, except occasionally in the deep shade of trees. Clearly though, that list of Google directions that you print out and nurse along the route needs to be carefully vetted before you start your journey.

Our Google directions list from Holland Landing, about 45 kms north of Toronto, to Canso, Nova Scotia, had fifty individual steps and of these three consecutive short steps, covering about eight kilometers, were on unpaved roads. Now we have since done what we should have done in the first place, we have actually looked at the map very closely to see where those directions were directing us. This has failed to provide a reason though for the quirky turns through farm fields that Google routed us. In fact when you look at the map you are left wondering if Google wasn’t having a bit of fun at our expense. And yes, I even checked to make sure that we didn’t download those directions on April 1st!

Our reason for this route, (through the Sherbrooke area sugarbush), on this particular road trip from Toronto to Nova Scotia, was to travel through Maine. It seemed like an interesting alternative to going through northern New Brunswick where the weather can still be a little bleak and unpredictable at this time of year. We were not disappointed; the towering white pines were no-longer clad in white but stood in sunshine.

We spent the night in Bangor, Maine, and to our complete amazement arrived to find that every hotel/motel was fully booked for a Spring event! The following morning, we elected to travel the coastal route, Route #1, otherwise known as “Down East and Acadian Route.” Though the mildness of the weather continued to charm us we were disapponted that there were in fact very few coastal views, with the exception of at Trenton and the Bar Harbour Island.

 

Bar Harbour Island was nothing short of breathtaking. Fringed by the Acadia National Park, the area is uncommonly beautiful and the climate temperate, protected as it is from the coastal winds by the gently undulating hills on the surrounding islands. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, reminiscent instead of the West coast in fact. Bar Harbour itself was a well-heeled resort community with trendy boutiques and lots of waterfront dining. Despite our early arrival there was already a sense that the tourism season was about to open.

From the waterfront The Cat, the high speed ferry from Bar Harbour to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia was visible across the water and cars were already lined up for the next sailing to Nova Scotia when we passed by the entrance to the ferry terminal. With hindsight, I rather wished that we had taken the ferry but still hopeful of those ocean views from route #1 we continued by car through to New Brunswick and then to Nova Scotia.

Our advice for anyone thinking about doing this roadtrip is to take the ferry, in spite of the relatively high ferry cost.

The ferry terminal in Bar Harbour is only one hour from Bangor and the high speed ferry crossing to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia is three hours.

 

Alternatively, take the detour from Bangor down to Bar Harbour, then retrace your route to Bangor. From Bangor take Hwy #9 to Calais and then Hwy #1 to St. John, New Brunswick, which is about a two and a half hour drive.

We found little to recommend along Route #1, the “Down East and Acadian Route,” between Bar Harbour and Calais. An occasional glimpse of the water, one particular scenic picnic area and the rather reddish coloured blueberry fields heralding Cherryfield, the blueberry capital of the world. The big payoff though was to come after crossing at Calais into New Brunswick: Once we were in New Brunswick we detoured to St. Andrews. Now this is the quaintest seaside town! I loved it. None of the photographs I took do it justice!