Pine Cone Camping in Penobsquis, N.B. (Photo: © 2019 Google)
While the Atlantic bubble remains closed, campgrounds across the province are preparing to welcome New Brunswick residents to their grounds for another unusual summer.
Campground owners are expecting a similar turnout, regulations, and experience as last year’s season.
“I’m not really approaching it too differently because I think everyone’s up to speed on provincial rules,” said Matt Harrison, President & Owner of Fundy Woods Campground and Cottages in St. Martins. “I’m just trying to take it week by week and get New Brunswickers to keep reserving sites and just keep trying to fill the place. That’s all I can keep doing.”
While Harrison is accepting out-of-province reservations, for the time being, he says some have already canceled or are tentative. Harrison says that like last year, inner-provincial reservations are higher than in past seasons.
“[There was a significant increase] last year for sure,” he said. “Obviously, everyone’s restricted on being able to leave the province so even now, up to this point, it’s been 90-95 percent New Brunswick inquiries because the Quebecers and the Ontarians can’t travel here yet so it’s a unique situation.”
Kaye Small, owner and manager of North Head Campground & Park in Grand Manan, says that the number of reservations this year has been consistent with 2020’s numbers.
“New Brunswick people are relatively loyal, so my reservations are the same are in league with last year’s,” she said.
Small noted that she didn’t notice an increase in New Brunswickers visiting her campground in 2020, but did see an increase in people visiting the hiking trails on her property.
“We had more people hiking the trails here and on Grand Manan,” she said.
From the provincial standpoint, the Department of Tourism is expecting a similar summer to last year across the tourism industry, which of course includes camping.
“We expect visitation and traffic this summer season is going to look a lot like last summer,” wrote Morgan Bell, a spokesperson for the Department of Tourism, in an email to Huddle. “We are encouraging New Brunswickers to get out and explore their province as they are able to, within public health guidelines.”
Bell wrote that in 2020, there was a 9 percent decrease in visitation by New Brunswickers in New Brunswick compared to 2019.
“It is believed it would be much greater than this without the collaborative efforts of the Department and the tourism industry,” wrote Bell.
Those efforts include the Explore NB Travel Incentive Program, which details have not been announced yet but will be returning this year.
According to data released by ExploreNB in November, the program helped campgrounds boost overnight and long-term bookings.
Harrison, meanwhile, is hopeful that these summers will draw more people out and will continue to attract more people in the years to come.
“I think people are realizing that doing these types of activities are a good way to kind of combat the whole pandemic stuff,” said Harrison. “I predict the numbers will increase steadily for a few years, for sure.”
Liam Floyd is a Reporter for Huddle, a content sharing partner of Acadia Broadcasting.
