Atlantic small businesses not feeling optimistic for the upcoming tourism season

While this week marks the first full week of summer, it seems many businesses in the region are not feeling particularly optimistic about the biggest tourism season of the year.

While many costs for businesses in the region continue to rise, Duncan Robertson, a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says businesses generally aren’t anticipating the same for revenue.

“When we reached out to small business owners in the tourism sector to gauge their expectations for this summer tourism season, unfortunately what we see is that eight in 10 are not expecting any growth in terms of revenue compared to last year,” said Robertson in an interview with CTV's Todd Batiis on Wednesday.

“Why that’s concerning is because we see costs go up across the board, we see payroll taxes go up, payroll costs go up, the carbon tax, as well as the capital gains changes coming into affect which we expect will impact around half of small businesses across Canada, we’re not seeing the revenue meet the increase in costs.”

Robertson says there are a number of issues are contributing to the issue.

“If we look at demand, we’re seeing businesses in the hospitality sector, around 55 per cent of those businesses across Canada are citing lack of demand as an issue, six in 10 in the retail sector, so if you can’t get people through the door it makes it that much harder to meet these costs,” he said.

“Additionally, we are seeing the cost of living have an impact, and if you look at across Atlantic Canada, we’re seeing some softening in Atlantic provincial travel.”

Robertson says a slowing of travel between the Atlantic provinces is also a big concern for businesses.

“In Nova Scotia for example, 44 per cent of visitors are from other Atlantic provinces, so when we see softening that way it’s a big concern, and we’re really trying to recover from that pre-pandemic level of tourism.”

While summer has officially started, Robertson says there’s still many things that can be done to help small businesses get the most from this tourism season.

“Tourism season often falls in line with construction season as well, and we’re looking for small businesses to try and get financial support from the municipality when they’re impacted by these large-scale construction season and issues, which has been a problem,” he said.

“We need to see some support on the municipal side, but there’s also other supports, the province looking to cut that provincial fuel tax would be great to see, as well as the feds looking to return those promised carbon tax rebates which would provide around $70 million of support for small businesses.”

Still, he admits one of the biggest impacts for businesses simply cannot be controlled: the weather.

“The weather plays a big role, particularly when looking at hospitality, especially if you’re a restaurant with a patio, you’re really looking at these patio seasons to build those funds that can get you through the winter,” said Robertson.

“Even when it’s something like the Harbour Hopper in Halifax or the Harbour Hippo in P.E.I., when the weathers not great it’s hard for those businesses to get the business they’re looking for so it is a concern for sure.”

With files from CTV's Todd Battis.