2011 provincial visitor numbers still unreleased by government
With Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador’s (HNL) annual conference right around the corner, the provincial government still has not released visitor numbers for two years ago.
Last year, a spokeswoman for the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation said the province had changed its benchmark study, and it would take longer than usual to process the numbers, which help tourism operators plan for upcoming seasons.
“Every few years you have to go through a process of doing a new research study, and this is new data coming out,” said Diana Quinton in April.
“We did a Labrador study, and an exit survey of people leaving the island as well, to get a better sense of where everyone’s coming from, and the demographics and so on. That information is now being looked at, and basically won’t be available until the fall.”
But fall turned to winter, and with spring now around the corner, the numbers have still not been released. HNL chairwoman Darlene Thomas said Wednesday she expects the numbers will be released by Tourism Minister Terry French next week, during the organization’s annual conference.
“Minister French will be attending the conference, and we always have a provincial tourism luncheon, so at that time he’ll speak to that,” she said.
“Some of the early stats that we kind of know of, since 2003 to 2010, we’ve had a considerable increase in non-resident visitation and nonresident visitor spending, so that’s great news, and we’re hoping that the 2011 numbers will show increases in many areas.”
While the actual number of visitors for the last two years have yet to be released, the provincial government has released the key tourism indicators for 2011 and 2012, which show a decline in both Marine Atlantic passenger travel and non-resident automobile residents. But airport passenger numbers were up both years, and hotel occupancy was up in 2011 and stable in 2012. It was a similar statistical picture in 2010 — air travel up, Marine Atlantic and automobile travel down — when the number of visitors reached 518,000, an increase of 7.3 per cent over the year before.
Thomas wasn’t sure if all the visitor numbers for last year would be released at next week’s conference at the same time as the 2011 numbers.
“There may be some early 2012 numbers released, but the stats that they were doing for 2011 was a very comprehensive package of information, which is good, because it really helps our operators be very well-equipped to make very good business decisions based on fact and not speculation. So the research of this nature is really a key piece,” she said.
“It would be nice to get the stats coming out a little faster, but once they’ve got the structure of how they’ve developed these numbers for 2011, I think it’ll be a little faster turnaround in the future.”
Thomas said she thinks the 2011 and 2012 numbers will be positive.
“Overall I think we’re still moving in the right direction, where you’re seeing some other regions are still suffering from the economic uncertainty of the past few years,” she said. “We really haven’t seen that. It’s still encouraging.”
French, the spokesman for provincial tourism department, was not available for an interview Wednesday, but the department provided a written statement.
“In 2011, the provincial government undertook a new exit survey to measure visitation to the province. The exit survey was a substantial undertaking that was conducted over the course of a full year, and the amount of data collected required substantial data processing to ensure a high level of data quality. The extent of this exit survey project is greater than any previous exit survey undertaken by the department, and it is not uncommon for research projects of this size and complexity to take as long as this research has taken,” reads the statement.
“The department is concluding its final analysis now and intends to release tourism statistics for 2011 and 2012 at the Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador conference that will take place in St. John’s next week. The conference provides an ideal opportunity to deliver this information to the industry stakeholders.”
Next week’s three-day conference, Feb. 20-22, will provide a snapshot of where the industry sits and where it’s going, said Thomas.
“Over the last few years, we’ve really focused on leadership and skills and knowledge, so we’re really doing more on that,” she said.
“Knowledge on leadership and quality of experiences, and marketing tools and HR and things like that.”
The organization will also launch its tourism assurance plan, developed by HNL and supported by the provincial tourism department.
“It’s basically some minimum standards that we’re asking all operators to adhere to, to get us into the next generation, we’ll say,” she said.
“We’re starting very simply by making sure every tourism operator has an email address, has contact information 12 months of the year, so when people are inquiring, they’re able to get back to them. Things like a website, and if not your own designated website, at least having a Facebook presence.”
The minimum standards will be required in order to be listed in the Newfoundland and Labrador tourism guide and on the website, she said.