Carol Alderdice is the president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick. (Photo: Twitter/Carol Alderdice)
The opening of the border from the United States into Canada will mean a much-needed boost for New Brunswick’s tourism sector.
Canada plans to allow fully vaccinated Americans across the border starting on August 9th.
President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick Carol Alderdice says opening the border is something they have been advocating for, “It’s not going to save the industry in two months, or three months but it certainly is going to help continue with the revenues coming in.”
Alderdice says they have been seeing some increased traffic coming in from other Atlantic provinces, but that only accounts for around 33 per cent of the tourist revenue, and they can’t survive on that
She says there is still hope for tourism for the fall, with the number of attractions here.
She says the fish and hunt is always very busy at that time of year, “Fish and hunt is always very busy in the fall. The same with leaf-peeping. We have a lot of Americans who come to New Brunswick to see the beautiful colours of our trees in the fall. It would have been great if it were earlier, but it is certainly not too late. It’s great news for our industry.”
Since the pandemic began, Alderdice says some tourist operators experienced a 50 to 100 per cent drop in revenue during the pandemic, “We have lost around nine or ten TIANB members, that went out of business. There has definitely been some losses of tourism businesses.”
She adds that Destination Canada has predicted if the tourism industry in Canada has a good year for 2021, there would be recovery by 2023, “If not, it won’t happen until 2024-25.”
Canadian provinces will all be competing to attract tourists this summer and fall. Alderdice offered her thoughts on some things that might bring them to New Brunswick, “The incentive program being extended to all Atlantic provinces is going to help. We just need to ensure that New Brunswick is top of mind when people are planning their vacation. Our province is responsible for marketing and advertising and they have been doing that well.”
