Tourism Booming in Nova Scotia

Though it’s flown largely under the radar for many tourists, Nova Scotia is enjoying a tourism boom of late.

The Canadian province is becoming a major destination, breaking its own records for tourism. In August, some 400,000 people came from outside the area to stay at least one night in the province, Canada’s second smallest.

“We haven’t seen an August like this in more than 15 years of tracking visitation … these numbers confirm the positive stories we’ve been hearing from businesses right across the province,” says Michele Saran, CEO, Tourism Nova Scotia.

The data shows the majority of the increase is visitors arriving by air; numbers for August 2016 are up 21 percent over the same month last year. Of the approximately 400,000 visitors that month, the vast majority (331,000) are from other parts of Canada, mainly the neighboring maritime provinces, plus Ontario and Quebec. More than 50,000 people came from the United States, mostly from New England. Only 15,000 came from overseas.

Most visitors stayed the night in the capital, Halifax. Cape Breton Island was the next most popular spot to overnight.