Poor weather fails to dampen travelers’ spirits in June

Creating jobs for Islanders -

Tourism numbers were strong in June, despite a full month of relatively poor weather.

All entry points to Prince Edward Island, including the Confederation Bridge, The Charlottetown Airport, and Northumberland Ferries, reported traffic close to par with last June, and they remained ahead of 2017’s record year-to-date numbers.

“June-uary was one of the worst Junes for weather in recent memory,” Economic Development and Tourism Minister Chris Palmer said. “Despite that our entry points remained strong, our golf numbers were close to even, and year-to-date we were only slightly behind last year’s record season in terms of overnight stays.”

2017 was the fourth straight record year for tourism in Prince Edward Island. For the first time ever the province recorded over 1,000,000 overnight stays, and welcomed just over 1,500,000 total visitors.

While the numbers at entry points remained strong compared to June 2017, accommodations did see a small drop in demand. Total overnight stays dropped 5.4 percent compared to last June, and are 1.6 percent behind 2017’s record year-to-date numbers.

“We’ve been keeping in close contact with operators across the province and the majority say they are pacing on par or slightly ahead of last year for the remainder of the season,” Palmer said. “All the same, we are enhancing our regular marketing campaign to increase our presence on social media, and in print and broadcast media to help attract additional short haul visitation from the Maritime Provinces.” 

The tourism industry is vital for the economic health of our province. The industry employs over 7,700 full time equivalent workers and contributes about $447 million to the provincial economy every year

To see the June tourism indicator report visit: www.princeedwardisland.ca/sites/default/files/publications/current_mont…

Media contact:

Andrew Sprague

asgsprague@gov.pe.ca