Tourism Nova Scotia works directly with journalists and social media influencers to tell stories about Nova Scotia that inspire travellers to choose the province for their next vacation. Media coverage of Nova Scotia is a third-party endorsement, which often has more influence on people’s travel decisions than traditional advertising and can usually generate a bigger return on our investment.
Tourism Nova Scotia’s Media Relations Team, Pam Wamback and Janette Wallace, have been travelling full-speed ahead the past few months, hosting close to 100 media guests, with more to come. Most of these visits are individual, customized self-drive itineraries that suit the needs and interests of the publications / outlets and their audiences.
While the ROI for this year is still being calculated, 74 media were hosted in 2023-24 and when combined with other travel media activities such as editorial partnerships and in-market press releases, editorial content about Nova Scotia reached approximately 11 billion impressions with an advertising value of $588M! (Fun fact: A Nova Scotia article produced for the UK Times Travel section was the most viewed for them for an 11-month period which they view as a fantastic achievement.)
As an example of the types of press trips hosted, in October, a special group from Switzerland visited the province for six days. A new airline partner for Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Edelweiss Air will operate its new non-stop Halifax – Zurich route twice weekly beginning July 2025 on its Airbus A340-300 aircraft, which comfortably seats 314 passengers in business and economy classes.
Tourism Nova Scotia, in partnership with Halifax International Airport Authority, hosted 10 guests on the press trip, including 7 journalists, a photographer, a videographer and the Senior Marketing Manager for Edelweiss Air, Corinne Romer. They had a fantastic time exploring Halifax and Southwest Nova Scotia and were particularly enthralled with the quantity and quality of our fresh seafood, the varied landscapes, the spectacular fall colours and of course the people.
While most of the content will be published in early 2025 to promote the launch of the service, an article has already been published by one of the journalists, Emmanuel Coissey. He was on assignment for 20 Minute, a Swiss daily newspaper with the highest online reach in Switzerland reaching 6.5 million people. You can read the article HERE and see some of the stunning images captured by the photographer.