Better late than never: N.B. tourism operator counting on late summer U.S. border boost

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -

New Brunswick tourism operators say a potential mid-August reduction in Canada/U.S. border restrictions will provide an important late-summer industry boost.

"Even if it is mid-August and not now I think it's still really going to help our industry, especially the outfitters," says Carol Alderdice, president of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick. "The fishing and hunting outfitters, most of their customers come from the U.S."

Alderdice says a mid-August border re-opening date would also allow for the traditional uptick in stateside visitors who want to see the province's fall foliage.

U.S. VISITORS KEY MARKET FOR SOME N.B. ATTRACTIONS

Before the pandemic, 90 per cent of visitors to Roosevelt Campobello International Park travelled to the site by crossing the Roosevelt International Bridge, which links Campobello Island to Lubec, Maine.

The site, which commemorates the former family vacation home of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was open last summer to visitors within the Atlantic bubble.

"Instead of seeing 800 to 900 people a day we would see 40 to 50 people a day," says Kate Johnston, manager of marketing and visitor services at Roosevelt Campobello International Park. "Any opening up of non-essential travel through the bridge and through the Canada/U.S. border would have a huge impact on us and the island as well."

Johnson says the international park is looking to embrace its unique opportunity of celebrating the border's re-opening.

"We are planning it already," she says.