JOGGINS – Canada’s newest world heritage site is continuing to drive tourism numbers in Cumberland County.
With tourism up by one per cent in 2009 across the province, the Joggins Fossil Cliffs Interpretive Centre saw another increase in visitors during its second summer of operation.
“Things were great in Joggins this past year,” centre executive director Jenna Boon said. “We had a lot more group visitors and numbers were good compared to our first year.”
Boon said the centre got a lot more school tours and booked tours in 2009, and saw the number of visitors continue to exceed expectations. Centre officials thought there would be a slight decrease after the excitement generated by the centre’s opening in 2008 and the cliffs’ designation as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
“After year one we thought there would be a little dip, but we’re holding steady,” said Boon, adding the centre also saw a significant number of international visitors from Europe. “Internationally, we had a bit of a shift from Germany in 2008 to the U.K. in 2009. Overall, it’s about seven per cent of our visitors.”
She is hoping tourism numbers will continue to grow in 2010. The centre had about 14,000 paid visitors at the centre while it’s estimated another 8,000 visited the beach at Joggins.
Boon said tourism in Cumberland County has seen steady growth over the last decade thanks to the emergence of world-class attractions from the fossil centre to the Fundy Geological Centre in Parrsboro as well as Cape Chignecto Provincial Park and the Eatonville development.
Visitation to the area should also improve with the repaving of the highway to the centre from Maccan, but she’s hoping the province will upgrade the Shulie highway that opened in 1992.
Ken Adams at the Fundy Geological Museum said his numbers are beginning to rebound after a couple of lean years. Adams said the number of visitors was up about four per cent over 2008.
“It suggests things are really starting to turn around,” he said. “It’s still down from our heydays after the centre opened, but it’s definitely heading in the right direction.”
Adams is looking ahead to the coming year, saying alterations to the gallery space should draw more people to the centre and solidify links with the Joggins centre.
Also, while tourism stats look at the number of people coming from outside the province, Adams said the geological centre has seen solid numbers among visitors from within the province.
Provincially, the majority of visitors, 88 per cent, came from other parts of Canada while nine per cent came from the United States. Of the visitors that came to Nova Scotia, 70 per cent arrived by road.
dcole@amherstdaily.com
