Many people, both casual observers and political experts, originally dismissed Donald Trump as a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

Now, some are wondering if they want to stay south of the border if Trump wins and what started as a tongue-in-cheek website promoting Cape Breton as a Trump-free alternative has seen some pretty significant traffic.

Rob Calabrese’s website, which aims to help Americans find new residency if Trump is elected, continues to gain popularity. So far there have been about 600,000 unique visitors to the page.

“I couldn't have possibly expected it to take on the life that it has,” says Calabrese.

Proof of the page’s popularity can be found in the number of visits to related sites. Cape Breton real estate pages, which usually see 200 hits a day, have seen a spike of over 20,000 visits.

“It seems pretty coincidental but I don't think it is,” says Jacquelyn Bauer, a real estate associate. “Right after that website went live that's when we saw the spike. In fact, on Friday that number jumped up to 50,000 a day.”

David Johnson, a political science professor at Cape Breton University, says Trump is a strong favourite for right wing Americans.

“They're angry at the economy, they fear the world, they fear immigration, they fear terrorism, fear for their jobs and Trump taps into that,” says Johnson.

Since 1980 no Republican has taken both the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries and then failed to win the nomination. Two of those three predecessors, Ronald Regan and George H. W. Bush, went on to sit in the White House.

“The anti-Trump vote might still be able to rally around somebody like Marco Rubio, but time is of the essence and the anti-Trump vote has to get organized very quickly,” says Johnson.

Whether Trump wins or loses, Calabrese feels his website will continue to get traffic.

“A lot of people who write in never heard of Cape Breton before, that's a common thing, no matter who wins we want to come and see it,” says Calabrese.

Calabrese says he and Trump share one philosophy – there's no such thing as bad publicity.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore