Lots of snow, but fewer tourists
Published Wednesday March 4th, 2009
This is shaping up to be a great year for snowmobiling and skiing in New Brunswick.
But Fredericton's winter tourism numbers for 2009 aren't so good.
"A lot of the tourism business in the winter months is around business travel and convention travel," said David Seabrook, manager of Fredericton Tourism, on Tuesday. "It has been a bit of rough first quarter so far for our accommodations sector.
"Our occupancies are down a little bit."
Seabrook said no official tourism numbers for the winter are available yet.
"It is particularly down compared to last year for Fredericton because we hosted the East Coast Music Awards last February," he said. "We got a huge bump out of that."
Seabrook said the recession has begun to bite into some of the business and convention traffic that Fredericton depends on during the winter. That's forcing people to be creative with some of their promotional ideas, he said.
One local hotel is having a tropical promotion, with tanning and staff wearing leis, he said.
Seabrook said Fredericton benefits from skiers from other regions coming to Crabbe Mountain and staying in the capital.
The city doesn't track those statistics separately from other travel statistics, he said.
Meanwhile, the Crabbe Mountain ski resort is booming this year.
"We are doing excellent," said Stefan Billings, promotions and marketing director. "We are sitting at 325 centimetres (10 feet) for the season so far. It is only March."
Billings said there was no January thaw this year, but there was poor weather early in December.
"Once Christmas came it has been winter ever since," he said. "Even yesterday we got 12 centimetres of snow and very little freezing rain.
"Out here, it is a winter wonderland and it was snowing again today."
Billings said this year is on par with last year, which was a banner year for skiers.
"We had 15 feet of natural snow (in 2008), which is unheard of in these parts," he said.
He said about 10 per cent of skiers come to Crabbe Mountain from outside the region.
"We are seeing a lot of people travelling regionally, especially from the Moncton and Saint John area and from Halifax," Billings said.
Those areas seem to have less snow this year, he said.
"We have seen a lot from Maine in the past," he said. "This year we are probably about that same."
As well, the American dollar is stronger this year, which helps, he said.
"The other thing that people travelling regionally have definitely mentioned is the price of gas going down in the fall," said Billings. "That has really helped us out."
He said that even makes a difference between skiers from Fredericton coming to the hill once a week and twice a week.
There is a bus from several locations in Fredericton to Crabbe Mountain and back during March break. The bus also runs on weekends.
Details can be found on the resort's website, www.crabbemountain.com.
Billings said a busy day at Crabbe would be "up to 1,000 skiers."
Ross Antworth, general manager of the New Brunswick Federation of Snowmobile Clubs Inc., said when you talk about winter tourism in this province, you are really talking about snowmobiling.
"Not to be disrespectful to Crabbe Mountain but people don't travel from Connecticut, Maine, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec to go to Crabbe Mountain," he said. "The only sector the government of New Brunswick measures for winter tourism is snowmobiling," he said.
"That is not to be disrespectful to people who ski. But when you talk about winter tourism, we shouldn't confuse winter tourism with winter activities."
Antworth said 2009 has been a great year for snowmobiling.
"We are having our third year of growth," he said. "We are seeing a rise in trail permit sales, a rise in registration.
"We have had a longer season because of the weather."
Snowmobiling is worth an estimated $30 million a year in New Brunswick.
This is also the first year of real snowmobile trail enforcement in 40 years and that's a positive thing, he said.
Antworth said dealers are reporting that they are sold out of snowmobiles.
"Hotels are reporting higher occupancy rates than they have seen in 10 years," he said. "The weather has been perfect.
"Good things are happening."
Antworth said numbers are tallied at the end of the season so they aren't available yet.
But permit sales in January this year were higher than January 2008 and that was higher than the previous year.
"We are on track for somewhere around 11,000 permit holders," he said.
A seasonal permit costs $200 and a daily permit costs from $30 to $75 and the money goes to trail grooming, he said.
New Brunswick has 7,100 kilometres of snowmobile trails that criss-cross the province and connect with Nova Scotia, Maine and Quebec, he said.
"The Fredericton area has some of the largest clubs in the province," said Antworth, including the Fredericton Snowmobile Club and the Nashwaak Valley Snowmobile Club.
"While the promotions are in northern New Brunswick, the bulk of the membership is in southern New Brunswick," said Antworth.
He said the Fredericton area doesn't pull as many people from outside the province for snowmobiling as it should.
"We continue to work with the city to have a better and more permanent route," he said. "The city has recognized that a snowmobile trail has to be part of municipal planning.
"That is coming together much better than it has in previous years."
Antworth said there are things he would like to see to improve snowmobiling in New Brunswick.
That includes fewer fatal accidents and having the trails groomed into the middle of April, he said.
"The longer the trail system stays in place then you have people participating for a longer period of time ... buying gas and food and staying in hotels," he said.
"A longer season makes for a better season and a safer season makes for a better season."
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