From today's T&T:
Moncton tourism grows in tough times
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Times & Transcript
By: Brent Mazerolle
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=12749
The Moncton area has once again bucked a falling trend when it comes to tourism in Atlantic Canada, according to a veteran tourism industry consultant.
Rod Cunningham, the president of McKellar, Cunningham and Associates, went before Moncton city council last night to deliver a good news/ bad news look at tourism in 2013.
When you look at the state of the industry in Atlantic Canada, “don’t judge it by what’s going on in Moncton,” Cunningham warned.“It has not gone well in the Maritimes the past five years.”
Of the five major tourism centres, four saw hotel room sales fall in 2013 compared to 2012. But while Halifax, Charlottetown, Saint John and Fredericton all saw slides, Moncton’s room sales grew by 8,000 room nights, this despite the fact the previous year had also seen growth over the year before that.
Not that Moncton’s ride wasn’t bumpy too. The first part of the year started out slowly but the second half surged, Cunningham said.
“You had an ominous beginning, but a happy ending,” he told council. “It looked like you were about to lose all the ground you’d gained in the past few years.”
The Moncton area, despite the lack of a major outdoor concert last year, managed to turn it around especially in July and August.
“You ran at 82 per cent (accommodations) occupancy,”he said, calling that the equivalent of essentially being sold out in the hotel industry.
Last year’s CFL game took place in September, so it doesn’t explain the booming July and August either, though the ever popular and ever growing Atlantic Nationals Automotive Extravaganza was of course a big help in July. As has been noted before over the years, the Atlantic Nationals also does a good job of drawing a demographic that will attend the show and then has the time and money to make Moncton their base for a tour of the Maritimes.
Whatever the causes of last summer’s success,
“that was the best performance by a Maritime destination in a decade,” he noted.
To some extent, even the tourism expert was baffled by our continued strong performance, he admitted.
“There’s no reason Moncton should have run at 82 per cent in July and August, when
Halifax had its worst summer ever.”
Because the Maritimes is a market in trouble overall, Cunningham said the only way a centre like Moncton has been able to gain market share is by taking it from other centres in the region.
“The problem you have is the provinces are not delivering the traffic,” he said, adding that
Moncton’s happy experience has been an ability to steal those room nights away from the other centres. That might explain how Moncton grew 8,000 room nights while Halifax alone lost 16,000.
The tourism expert did offer four observations of key ways Metro has succeeded.
First we’re not dependent on a single market of travellers. Instead of say, relying heavily on the tour bus market, we have that, but also other types of travellers from around the region, from the rest of Canada and abroad, as well as peak season and off season travellers.
He also said when it comes to the accommodations business, “you have a skilled industry here that knows how to price right.”
He explained pricing of hotel rooms is a very complex business and suggested Halifax for instance, is overpriced.
“There’s a very price sensitive component of the market,” he explained, noting the same people who will decide to stay an extra night in Moncton because their room costs about $100 will not stay the extra night in Halifax where rooms are about $200 a night. And once they’ve decided to drive home to spend a night in their own beds, they’re no longer in Halifax spending their money in restaurants or on entertainment or shopping.
Third, our “attractions are not burning out,” he said. He praised local attractions for regularly investing in improvements and making efforts to stay fresh.
By contrast, he said a number of traditionally popular attractions in the Maritimes have not done so and he used Fortress Louisburg as an example saying for about 15 years it had seen declining visits and had failed to do much about it. He noted however the historic Cape Breton site did manage to leverage its 300th anniversary with a new emphasis on programming and marketing and turn things around.
But if Moncton’s attractions are doing a good job, the Magnetic Hill Zoo was at the top of the heap, with a 17 per cent growth in attendance last year.
In response to Cunningham’s report Mayor George LeBlanc voiced his appreciation of the success of the zoo Zoo manager Bruce Dougan was attending the council meeting because a tender award for Phase 3 of the new Amur tiger exhibit was also on the agenda.
“I want to take the opportunity to congratulate you for your leadership and your team for their hard work We’ve had a very glowing review of tourism here tonight and the zoo continues to excel,” LeBlanc told Dougan “You’re doing everything Mr. Cunnigham said tonight.”
And while this aspect of Metro Moncton’s appeal doesn’t translate into hotel rentals, the fourth reason Cunningham identified for our area’s success is the fact we are centrally located and offering the amenities to be an attractive “day’s drive” destination, a good place for people from around the region to visit for the day.