Tourism sagging after strong start
21.12.2011, 16:55
After a fabulous winter and good spring, summer tourism on P.E.I. - the industry's bread and butter - is looking weak.
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And most of the factors causing it, such as the rising dollar and gas prices, are outside the province's control, Don Cudmore, executive director of the Tourism Industry Association of P.E.I. told CBC News.
"We have some very nervous operators," Cudmore said.
"The early part of the season, from January to May, was great for those operations that are open. But when our summer operations started to open up in May we saw some serious declines."
Previously dropping off, tourism numbers had seemed to level off in 2005.
Cudmore said factors outside of the province's control are making P.E.I. an expensive place to visit.
"It's just things like that, that again are out of our control," Cudmore said.
"We are getting to be an expensive destination."
Hitting P.E.I. particularly hard is a decline in motor coach traffic. With many U.S. operators putting up prices by as much as 50 per cent, it's expected coach trips will be down 25 per cent this year, a drop Cudmore says is expected right across Canada.
And that drop comes on top of a steady overall decline in bus tours.
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada says motor coach traffic is down 32 per cent over the last five years. Automobile traffic is down by the same amount.
While gas prices and the dollar are likely factors, Cudmore confesses that's probably not all there is to it.
"We don't really know why," he said. ''We are getting to be an expensive destination.'- Don Cudmore'
"The traffic just doesn't seem to be there; the inquiries just don't seem to be there."
Regular visitors to Canada have noticed that it's costing more. Ellie and Sidney Glen, for example, came to the island by bus from Michigan:
"When the Canadian dollar was 30 and 40 per cent of a value, it was nicer," Glen told CBC News as he toured Charlottetown.
"Now at the bank I got eight per cent, and the prices are higher. They always were higher in Canada, but we had the American discount so it evened out."
Unless the picture improves for gas prices and the American dollar, there is no expectation that P.E.I. will start seeing more American visitors.
In the meantime, the tourism industry is considering focusing its marketing dollars on Canada, Europe and Japan, and on the growing cruise ship market.