Tourists returning to the Maritimes this summer should have their pocketbooks ready.
“Business has certainly come back quite a bit in the last year. And this year appears that it will be even stronger than last year,” said Scott MacAulay. For nearly four decades, he has owned the Inverary Resort in Baddeck, N.S., overlooking Cape Breton Island’s Bras d’Or Lake. Downtown Halifax hotel rooms are already going for $300 a night in May – a price tag that lingers for most major hotels in the city until the end of August. Elsewhere in the region, most hotels in downtown Charlottetown in May are between $150 and $200 a night. Many in Moncton are above $200.
Other tourism industry officials in the region said these summer season hotel prices are higher than in past years – especially so in cities where events will be held. In July, Halifax prices are slightly higher when the North American Indigenous Games come to town.Darlene Grant Fiander, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, said early bookings have driven up demand – then prices – for most of the season.