Tall Ships poised to deliver economic windfall
Posted Jul 20, 2012 05:29:22 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Tall Ships Festival is poised to be a major windfall for Halifax.
As the five-day event got underway Thursday, the waterfront was crowded shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people boarding ships, buying souvenirs and lining up outside restaurants for a table.
The event brought in more than $32 million in 2009, and it appears the 2012 version is well on the way to a similar tally.
“I think you’ll find most hotel rooms downtown are full at this time, which is fantastic,” Scott Travis of the Nova Scotia Hotel Association told News 95.7. “The residual effect would be felt first over at the hotels that aren’t downtown, but there are still lots of hotel rooms available, so we are still open for business.”
The tourist boom is welcome after a cold and soggy summer in 2011 that saw tourism numbers fall across the province.
Figures from the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism found room nights sold between January and December fell by one per cent and visits from the United States decreased three per cent. Domestic travel to the province also fell by one per cent.
Those figures are have already improved significantly. The department released figures in May showing Nova Scotia welcomed 295,800 visitors in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 12 per cent compared to 2011.
“Let say we’ll make some headway over last year,” said Travis. “It’s not going to be a deal changer for the entire year, but it’s great to enjoy a couple of some fantastic business.”
The festival will bring 22 sailing vessels to the waterfront for people to tour and some for people to sail. There will be military demonstrations, walking tours, a food festival, live music and nightly fireworks.
