The majority of tourism indicators for the month of June are showing declines. The ferry traffic is down 6% and non-resident bridge traffic is down by 4% compared to June 2005. Room-nights sold for the month of June decreased by over 3000, with Western PEI, the South Shore and the North Shore accommodations showing declines. However, Eastern PEI and Charlottetown are recording increases in room-nights sold for the month of June.

Early indications are that tourism is experiencing decreased visitation regionally and, although national numbers are not available as yet, the trend is downward. Year to date, Prince Edward Island is experiencing similar trends to that of our neighbouring provinces with a strong start to 2006 and a softening of numbers in early summer. Increased gas prices, a continued strong Canadian dollar and a tendency towards last-minute travel have created challenges that are being experienced well beyond PEI.

One bright spot for PEI continues to be the growth in air access; air traffic for the month of June is up 36%, a direct result of existing air carriers adding more direct flights to Charlottetown and new carriers coming on board such as Sunwing Air.

David MacKenzie, Co-Chair of the Tourism Advisory Council noted, “Results for June are down and it seems that this trend is continuing for the month of July, with non-resident bridge traffic down by 7.8% for the month and down 2.8% overall from January to July. This is certainly not the picture we were anticipating in terms of traffic for 2006.” David continued, “We have set aggressive but realistic growth targets in the Five-Year Strategy for Tourism Competitiveness but this growth is based on the development and enhancement of tourism product, something that will not happen overnight. Future industry success will be hinged on the development of new product, such as authentic Cultural and Heritage product, and enhancements to existing product, such as the Confederation Trail and Coastal Touring Regions. It’s going to take a sustained concerted effort of the private and public sector to re-establish tourism growth in this province, something which the Tourism Advisory Council is prepared to do – we are in this for the long haul – PEI’s economy depends on it.”

Honourable Philip Brown, Minister of Tourism remarked, “Obviously we would like to see the numbers recover for all regions of the Island. Tourism PEI and TAC have been working diligently to capture the interest of travellers and, while the numbers remain soft, we do feel we are on the right path with our strategic plan.” He added, “Indications are that tourism numbers are lower than expected throughout the maritime region which reflects simply fewer travellers overall but is little consolation to operators waiting for business. Tourism PEI and TAC will continue to work towards reversing the regional trend and increasing tourism numbers for PEI.”

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