News

Cape Breton Island – Unama’ki celebrates its second best tourism year on record

 The Island saw record rooms nights sold, tourism revenues and website traffic

The final results are in and Cape Breton Island – Unama’ki recorded its second-highest room night sales in the destination’s history, only behind the landmark Canada 150 year in 2017. The final data was recently released by Tourism Nova Scotia, which showed that the Island saw 459,000 room nights sold, an increase of approximately 4,000 room nights over 2023.

“We are thrilled to share that 2024 was a great success for tourism in Cape Breton Island – Unama’ki,” said Terry Smith, CEO of Destination Cape Breton. “Despite continued economic headwinds from inflation and higher interest rates, the results demonstrate the resilience of our tourism industry and the enduring appeal of our Island.”

There was also an increase in tourism revenues in Cape Breton Island – Unama’ki, which have grown 30% over the 2019 pre-pandemic revenues, after adjusting for inflation. The Canadian Tourism Data Collective reported that tourism revenues on the Island were estimated at $465 million, up approximately $15 million from the previous year. 

Supporting this growth, Destination Cape Breton’s marketing campaign generated record traffic to its visitcapebreton.com website with over 1.5 million sessions. Additionally, the campaign generated a record number of clicks from the website to tourism operators websites, which is a strong indicator of intent to visit.

Destination Cape Breton and partners – Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Events Nova Scotia, Cape Breton University, local sport organizations and others – hosted major events such as the BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship and Canada Soccer U-17 National Championships. These events brought millions of dollars into the local economy.

“These results are a testament to the passion and dedication of the 5000 people working in our tourism industry from front-line employees to major investors,” added Smith. “As we look to the future, we’re committed to building on this momentum while preserving the natural beauty and cultural richness that makes Cape Breton Island – Unama’ki a cherished place in the hearts of so many.”