At the beginning of this project (i.e., August 2022), the size of the total tourism labour force and tourism employment was reduced by 9.0% and 8.0% in Canada, respectively, compared to the same month pre-pandemic. For Nova Scotia (NS) specifically, tourism labour force was reduced by 14.7% and tourism employment was reduced by 14.0%.

With the project approaching its end, as of April 2023, the size of the total tourism labour force was reduced by 4.6% and 4.5% in Canada, respectively, compared to April 2019. In Nova Scotia (NS), tourism labour force was reduced by 2.9% while tourism employment was elevated by 1.4%.

Highlights for Nova Scotia

• As of April 2023, NS’s tourism employment had finally recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
  • In August 2022, NS saw the biggest tourism employment loss among all provinces when comparing with pre-pandemic levels. However, in April 2023, Nova Scotia was one of the only two provinces in Canada that had seen tourism employment growth compared to April 2019.
• In April 2023, NS tourism sector was more likely to attract employment than in August 2022.
  • In August 2022, employment across all sectors in NS was up 3.1% from the same month in 2019 while tourism employment was down 13.8%. As of April 2023, employment across all sectors in NS was up 8.5% from April 2019 and tourism employment was up 1.4%.
• The gap in total actual hours worked was closing, but tourism employees in NS still worked fewer hours on average in April 2023 than they did pre-pandemic.
  • In August 2022, the total actual hours worked in the NS tourism sector was 15.8% lower than in August 2019. In April 2023, it was 9.4% lower than in April 2019.
• From August 2022 to April 2023, the total number of people who were not in NS’s labour force was elevated.
• Economic trends are positive in general except international arrivals.
  • International arrivals in NS in February 2023 were 21.9% down compared to February 2019.
  • In February 2023, food service sales in NS were 22.1% higher than the same month in 2019.
  • From August 2022 to April 2023, the number of active tourism businesses increased slightly.
  • From August 2022 to April 2023, the GDP of most tourism related industries was elevated.