A snowy winter and thousands of snowmobile enthusiasts, are helping boost business for motels and hotels in the province.
President of Snowmobile NB Dave Garland says COVID-19 has meant less tourists coming in from other provinces to ride the trails, but New Brunswickers are taking full advantage, “The fact that there is snow everywhere helps because you can snowmobile from home, but again, there is snow in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward island as well. Maybe we aren’t getting the tourism numbers that we wanted to from outside the province, but the in province people are definitely travelling. We’ve talked to some of the outfitters and they’re booked solid.”
Garland says there are around 19, 000 snowmobilers in New Brunswick who purchased trail permits for this year.
He adds, they have tried to attract tourists from outside the province as well, “Last year, with COVID restrictions the out of province people had purchased permits but they weren’t able to use them. So, what we did as a federation, the Board of Directors made the decision to send anyone that purchased a trail permit last year, a no cost replacement for this year.”
Garland says, “It has been a fantastic winter. A little bit much on the quantity of snow, but that’s what it takes. The groomers are out, the snowmobilers are happy. We have 49 clubs that are out there with 79 groomers. We are expecting to go right through the April 15th date, or even longer in some areas.”
