News Release
Fredericton Tourism Industry Has Record Impact in 2008
April 16, 2009
Fredericton's tourism sector established and set an all-time record with revenues of $220.4 million in 2008, according to an industry study released today by Fredericton Tourism.
The tourism industry in the Capital City grew by 2.1 per cent overall to hit an all-time high, outperforming most destinations in Eastern Canada and bucking stagnant growth patterns in the region. Tourism revenues in 2007 were $215.9 million.
Overnight visitors to the City increased by a strong 4.0 per cent to 592,000 while total visitation to the City was estimated at 1,362,000 visitors, an increase of 1.4 per cent from 2007.
"Given the stresses on the tourism industry in 2008 with high gas prices and declining visitation from the United States, these are exceptionally solid results," said David Seabrook, manager of Fredericton Tourism.
The 2008 Tourism Industry Performance report highlighted a remarkable 12.9 per cent growth in room sales to out of province Canadian visitors. In 2008, the City sold 12,500 more rooms overall than the previous year, which also saw increases in rooms sold by 11,000. The report was produced by McKellar, Cunningham and Associates for Fredericton Tourism.
"We're particularly pleased to see room sales increase significantly and to see out of province Canadian visitation increase because it reverses five years of losses. Those are strong results and we're happy to see any upward trend given the state of the industry overall," he added.
Fredericton occupancy rate held at 61 per cent, the highest in the Province and was second among the 17 tourism regions and cities East of Montreal.
The City saw a modest decline in rooms sold in the September-October shoulder season, but this decline followed a cumulative increase of 15 per cent over the previous two years.
"The 2008 results are quite positive, but 2009 is shaping up to be an even tougher year for the tourism industry. Its fortunes are closely related to the state of the economy, so we're going to have to work very hard in conjunction with our industry partners to maintain these results over the next 12 months," said Seabrook.
Seabrook said he's hopeful that new tourism product like the new FredRock festival in June and the City's new edVentures Learning Vacation program will help the industry through a difficult year.