A floating billboard in Halifax harbour on Canada Day promoted New Brunswick. (CBC)A tourism battle is brewing in the Maritimes as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia actively target visitors to lure them to the neighbouring province for summer vacations.
A floating billboard was towed through the harbour on Canada Day promoting New Brunswick as a destination to thousands of people walking along the Halifax waterfront.
"It's a brand new tactic and you're going to see it all summer long in the Halifax harbour," said Helen Jean Newman of New Brunswick Tourism. "But just for you to know, we also partner with Nova Scotia in some of our markets and we gave a call to our colleagues in Nova Scotia to let them know that we were doing this."
New Brunswick is also buying broadcast airtime in Nova Scotia and using social media as a marketing tool.
"Nova Scotia is a very important market to New Brunswick, which is why we are putting so much effort into the Nova Scotia market this year," said Newman. "We want to get Nova Scotian people coming to New Brunswick on a regular basis, whether it's for a week's vacation or getaways all year long."
Half of the visitors to New Brunswick in 2009 were from Nova Scotia.
The Nova Scotia Department of Tourism is just as aggressively promoting the province as a destination to people in New Brunswick. One million dollars has been invested in an Atlantic regional marketing campaign, said John Somers of the Nova Scotia department.
"We're used to doing little things in each other's markets. We do compete for the regional consumer. We don't take it lightly but we also accept the fact that they are going to be trying to sell New Brunswick to Nova Scotians just like we are trying to sell Nova Scotia to New Brunswickers."
Share Tools
Latest Nova Scotia News Headlines
- Voyeurism charges laid in south-end Halifax incidents
- A Dartmouth man has been charged with voyeurism in connection with a series of incidents in Halifax's south end. more »
- Chignecto-Central school board improves math scores
- The Chignecto-Central Regional School Board is boasting improved provincial math exam scores over last year, while students in other school boards are scoring poorly. more »
- 1st witness testifies to seeing Antigonish man stabbed
- A witness testified Wednesday at the second-degree murder trial of Robert Harris Lamb in Pictou that he saw Jonathan Robert Beaton get stabbed — the first of 17 witnesses to do so. more »
- High school students want bottled water ban
- Some high school students are banding together to lobby the Halifax Regional School Board to remove bottled water from all its schools. more »
Top News Headlines
- Tories move to curb 'bogus' refugees
- The Conservative government is poised to change the refugee system yet again in an attempt to deter what it considers "bogus" claimants, CBC News has learned. more »
- Children of immigrants challenged at school, home
- By 2016, foreign-born youth and Canadian-born youth from immigrant families will make up a quarter of the country's population, according to predictions by the Canadian Council on Social Development. As their numbers grow, more attention is being paid to their successes and failures. more »
- 2 NDP MPs back final Commons vote to kill gun registry
- Two NDP MPs broke party ranks to vote with the government in the final House of Commons vote on scrapping the long-gun registry. more »
- B.C. house party trial hears from tearful teens
- Two teenagers cried as they testified at the trial of a B.C. woman who was charged after a teen died while her son was hosting a party at her house in 2008. more »
- Escaped prisoner caught in Dartmouth
- Transit union has not agreed to conciliator
- Voyeurism charges laid in south-end Halifax incidents
- Coyotes kill deer in Lower Sackville backyard
- Transit strike continues as council vetoes arbitration
- Trial begins for Halifax escape artist
- Halifax AG says Transit drivers take too much overtime
- Canadian Tire tests new loyalty program in Nova Scotia
- HMCS Corner Brook collision damage extensive
