Tourism was down three per cent by the end of November, which means about 66,000 fewer people visited Nova Scotia than by the end of November 2007. Hotels sold one per cent more room nights for most of 2008, though, so the industry matched the $1.33-billion revenue reached last November.
Cruise-ship traffic was up 29 per cent in 2008 in Halifax, with 228,000 tourists coming through the Port of Halifax. In Sydney, it was up a whopping 107 per cent, bringing 76,000 visitors. Cruise-ship passengers are single-day visitors so they’re not included in the province’s visitor totals.
