Tourism indicators for the month of May are showing mixed results with air passenger traffic up 46%, ferry traffic up 5% and non-resident bridge traffic down by 6% compared to 2005. Room-nights sold for the month of May increased by over 1000 rooms and this is mainly attributable to the increase in meetings and convention business during this time period.

The Charlottetown region is the only region showing an increase in room-nights sold throughout the Island. Anne’s Land was about on par with accommodation activity in May of last year.

“We are pleased with the sales efforts of Tourism Charlottetown and The PEI Convention Partnership. This new organization is working very hard to secure new business for PEI and we are certainly seeing the effects of that hard work for the month of May,” stated Tourism Minister Philip Brown. “There are mixed results in our latest statistics, which is of concern to both the Department and the Tourism Advisory Council. We continue to market in our key regions and are optimistic that the trend toward last- minute booking will bring business to operators' doors right across the Island.”

Robbie Shaw, Co-Chair of the Tourism Advisory Council noted “With the increased global competition in the business of tourism, sound research is more important than ever. We are continually researching new consumer trends, visitor motivations and emerging markets to ensure PEI continues to have a competitive stance in the global tourism marketplace. For 2006, one thing that is clear is everyone has been working harder to capture more business, with festivals bringing in big name performers, tourism operators creating new travel packages, and Tourism PEI partnering with air carriers to extend PEI’s reach into non-traditional markets. We certainly hope these tactics will translate into increased business.”

Tourism performance indicators are released to the public monthly and can be downloaded at www.gov.pe.ca/tourism.