Are You in the TOURISM Business?

Written by Bernice Theriault | 14 June 2010

Take the challenge…

According to the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia - tourism in Canada is a $71.5 billion tourism industry. In Nova Scotia, tourism is a $1.8 billion industry and employs over 40,000 Nova Scotians. Tourism spending in Nova Scotia contributes more than $230 million in provincial tax revenue. This revenue helps support essential services such as health care and education.

If you do not think you are in the tourism business, and you think that tourism does not impact your business you may want to think again. Do you have a customer who recently moved to our area? Why did they move here? Were they once a tourist who enjoyed our area so much they wanted to call it home? Lunenburg County has an abundance of “Come From Away’s.” Many of whom were once tourists to this beautiful part of Nova Scotia and loved our way of life so much that they have decided to relocate here.

A tourist by definition is anyone who is more than 50 km away from home. Have you been to Halifax or Shelburne, perhaps the Valley or Yarmouth? You would have been considered statistically a “Tourist”. What did you do when you visited that area, did you eat in a local restaurant, buy gas at a gas station, pick up groceries or snacks at a grocery store, perhaps you were purchasing land for a cottage, taking a kid to University or simply taking in the sites. How many businesses did you visit? Would the owners and managers of the large national chain stores, the small specialty stores, the craft store, the bowling alley, or the real estate agent you visited consider themselves in the tourism business… probably not. The money you spent in those businesses is “GRAVY” it is not something they can count on and not something they budget for.

If each and every business in our area treated its “customers” like “guests” what an incredibly positive experience our visitors would have.

If you don’t think you are in the tourism business, take this challenge. For the next month ask your customers where they are from and record the answers. Check to see how many of your customers are visiting from outside the 50 km radius and then you will see that indeed you are in the tourism business.

About the author
Bernice Theriault is the manager of Bridgewater Comfort Inn.  She is a member of the Bridgewater and Area Chamber of Commerce, a past board member and a member of the Tourism committee for the Bridgewater Development  Association.