Tourists flock to Nova Scotia for exotic experiences

Nova Scotia had a bumper tourism year in 2016, drawing about 170,000 more visitors than it did in 2015.

Tourism Nova Scotia said that's the third year in a row numbers have risen and the best numbers since 2002. In total, 2.2 million visitors came to the province in 2016. 

Ben Cowan-Dewar, board chairman of the Crown corporation, said the agency is focusing on getting visitors to "spend more and stay longer."

"One of the things that drives visitations more than anything else is experiences," he said. "The more great opportunities for terrific opportunities, the more they're focused on coming."

How can I experience it?

Often that means taking an existing attraction like the Fundy tides and packaging it as an experience to dine on the ocean floor.

"The highest tide in the world sounds great, but what's the practical application of how I can experience it?" he said in an interview with CBC Friday. "Where you see tourism growth globally, what you're really seeing is operators and industries coming up with more creative ways to sell people things, frankly."

That's the approach they took with 2016's If You Only Knew campaign, with ads making it seem like the viewer is already in Nova Scotia's waters and woods. 

Data shows Nova Scotia's best-spending visitors tend to come from the U.S. and Ontario, followed by the U.K. and Germany. That's where Tourism Nova Scotia targets its ads. "Those four markets really represent some of our highest-yield clients," Cowan-Dewar said.

In 2016, the biggest increases were:

• 14 per cent rise in U.S. visitors
• 8 per cent rise in Canadian visitors
• 2 per cent rise in overseas visitors

Tourism Nova Scotia estimates the 2016 tourism season added $2.6 billion in revenue, although it did not break down that figure.

With a relatively weak Canadian dollar encouraging Canadians to travel at home and enticing Americans to good deals up north, 2017 looks to be another promising year, Cowan-Dewar said.

Add in Canada's 150th birthday celebrations and a Tall Ships visit and Nova Scotia could see a fourth straight year of tourism growth, he said. 

• Canada No. 1 on New York Times list of top 2017 travel destinations