TOURISM IS AN EXPORT INDUSTRY

Michèle Raymond
Tuesday April 1, 2008

Spring is coming, and visions of the summer tourist season have sprung in the minds of many Nova Scotians, both as visitors and as visited. Last month I had the chance to travel to the southern end of the province in my role as official Opposition critic for tourism, culture and heritage.

Most of my conversations were with tourism operators, and everyone recognizes how deeply we depend on our unique culture and heritage to attract visitors to the province. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to sustain an economy all by itself.

I’ve always maintained that tourism is an “export industry”, in that
visitors come to collect an experience they will take home with them. Nova Scotia has a long history of tourism, with people coming from around the world to see our sights and briefly share in our particular way of life, taking memories and sometimes souvenirs with them, while putting money into the provincial economy. But there are two essential facts which we need to remember: firstly, that tourism involves travel, and secondly, that the destination must have a distinctive experience to offer; most
tourists don’t travel to see more of what they have at home.

Tourism is measured primarily by numbers of accommodation nights sold in the province. Those numbers have taken a serious dip in recent years, partly because of gas prices, diminished American travel since September 11, 2001, and a strong Canadian dollar pushing up the relative cost of Canadian products.

Tourism operators in the southern part of the province have been especially hurt by the increasing difficulty of getting there. The 101 and 103 highways are the two main access routes. The Yarmouth airport hasn’t been a true international airport since Customs services were removed in the 1980s, the South Shore and Valley rail lines disappeared around the same time, and the ferries between Yarmouth and Maine are now under threat, cutting trips
and rearranging schedules, despite cash infusions from the NS government.

Bus tours have largely stopped booking travel on the Portland and Bar Harbour routes, because they need two or three years planning time, and there’s no idea when or if the ferries will be running. New US passport regulations will come into effect, but no-one yet knows when.

Uncertainty is devastating to the tourism industry. Many tourist
accommodations are open only in the summertime, meaning their employees are now seasonal workers. One motel-owner has gone
so far as to tear down one-third of the motel, because it’s too expensive to keep heating and paying property taxes on empty units.

There is almost no rural transit between southwestern communities, meaning employees need to drive if they don’t live within walking distance (just like in parts of Halifax Atlantic); this further drives up the cost of living in the area, making the underlying economy more and more fragile in the absence of the tourist trade.

It’s especially ironic that Yarmouth and the southwestern part of the
province should be losing their transportation links, since the area flourished largely on its transportation advantages, and that history is part of its tourist appeal Many magnificent houses and public buildings attest to the shipping and shipbuilding fortunes built along our southwestern coast, when it was the first entry point for the Caribbean and Boston trades.

Those trading routes were also the forerunners of a tourist trade. It began 150 years ago with fishing and hunting lodges drawing New England sportsmen to the natural bounty in all parts of the province. Gradually, our cooler weather encouraged more citydwellers from Southern climates to spend summer holidays here; today, many tourists come to enjoy the history and the vibrant culture that developed as an integral part of a flourishing economy.

Today, however, the southwestern end of the province is in danger of
becoming a cul de sac. Vanishing transportation links make it more and more difficult to conduct business of any kind, as services are withdrawn, tourism eventually falls off too.

Tourism is an indication of the health of the rural economy. If tourists don’t visit, it’s either because they can’t get to our tourist areas, or because they don’t want to. In either case, we all need to be concerned; if tourists don’t come to share our way of life and take that experience home, the province loses as a whole.

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