As we look back at the year that was, we chatted with the boss at Bay of Quinte Tourism, Dug Stevenson.
He says getting out of the pandemic meant a lot of people started travelling the world again, but not everyone was looking to get out of the house.
“When we look at tourism on the year, we’re up seven per cent over last year (2021), so we continue to grow out of COVID.”
He says during the summer, the heart of the tourism year, the Bay of Quinte region is up four per cent over pre-pandemic numbers.
“We’ve actually grown through tourism, regardless of COVID. One of the reasons I think is because, we are so lucky to be where we are. We’re basically three and a half hours from like ten million people.”
“Because we’ve got such population so close by, we still benefit from that.”
He says the way tourism is being marketed is changing, into selling tourism product.
“When I first started, there were very few things on the north shore that somebody would actually travel for. COVID really accelerated travel in this region. The north shore of the Bay of Quinte, being a destination.”
