Tourism Nova Scotia gathers and reports tourism statistics on behalf of the tourism industry. Updated tourism statistics are now available at https://tourismns.ca/key-tourism-performance-indicators
October 2020 Accommodations Activity
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to severely affect Nova Scotia’s fixed roof accommodation providers, with a decline of 45% in room nights sold in October alone (a difference of 118,000 room nights sold compared with October 2019). Despite the challenges facing the industry, the October losses confirm an ongoing improvement since May, when monthly room night sales were down 77% compared with the same period in 2019. Over the summer and fall, the size of the monthly decline has consistently narrowed, suggesting increasing interest and confidence in travel within the Atlantic bubble.
Accommodations operators across the province report 1,098,000 room nights sold year to date as of October 2020, down 55% compared with the same period in 2019.
October Non-resident Visitation
Non-resident visitation to Nova Scotia was down 65% in October 2020 compared to the same month the previous year. According to statistics gathered by Tourism Nova Scotia, there were 68,000 non-resident visitors to Nova Scotia in October, with 8,000 arriving by air (down 91%, or 73,000 fewer visitors) and 61,000 arriving by road (down 46%, or 53,000 fewer visitors). Notably, there were more visitors in October than September (61,000 road visitors in October compared with 58,000 in September), reflective of the increased comfort in travelling within the Atlantic bubble.
More details, including visitor origins, accommodations information by region, sharing economy data, and campground statistics are available on our website.