Nova Scotia's August tourism numbers are best ever for province

Some businesses in the Halifax area say the hot Nova Scotia summer was a boon for tourism.

"It was fantastic. We had almost no rain days all summer ... the drought was definitely good for business on the beer garden front," saidChris Reynolds, the co-owner ofStillwell, a Halifax bar that also runs a beer garden on Spring Garden Road.

Reynolds said there were only a few days all summer whenthe beer gardenshut down due to rain, compared to last year when poor weatherat one point closed it for 11 straight days.

A record-breaking August

Reynolds'ssatisfaction is borne out in numbers.The Nova Scotia government says August was a record month for tourism with almost 400,000 visitors coming to the province, a seven per cent increase from August 2015.

Terri McCulloch, a manager with AmbassatoursGray Line and Murphy's The Cable Wharf, says tourists always gravitate toward the waterfront, but when the weather is hot, locals flock there as well because it tends to be cooler.

"This year, where we had such hot temperatures for so many days, even a few degrees cooler when it'sin the 30s, if you canget it down to the high 20s, it's a little more comfortable," she said.

The impact of The Cat

The number of room nights sold in the province (372,000) was anincrease offour per cent over August 2015.

In the Yarmouth and Acadian Shores region, the number of room nights sold in August was up 10 per cent over the year prior.

That coincides with the new schedule for the ferry that runs between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine.

This year, The Cat arrived at night, so people often stayed in town for the night. As well,the boat leftearly in the morning and passengerswould often stay in Yarmouth the night before their ferry departed.

Last year, the Nova Star arrived in Yarmouth in the morning and left shortly thereafter.

Of the 397,700 visitors to Nova Scotia in August, the province saidmost were Canadian (331,000), followed by Americans (51,800) and people from overseas(14,900).