Despite many closures from Hurricane Dorian, it was a great season for camping.
The Province’s provincial parks saw just under 80,000 campsite bookings with a three per cent increase in park attendance over last year at the end of August.
Numbers did see a dip in September as Dorian shut the gates on most parks, leaving some closed with substantial damage.
Sandra Fraser, Parks Promotion and Development Officer with the province, said the province has been working on making the parks more accessible.
“Just a couple of examples, at Rissers Beach we installed the Mobi-mat to make the beach more accessible,” she said,” and on Graves Island this fall, we completed the repaving of the Causeway to make it easier for people to get their campers there.
Those changes also included a gender neutral comfort station in Valleyview Provincial Park, which saw a 33 per cent increase over last year.
Fraser said parks across the province were on path to see a three per cent increase in total over last year, but numbers fell in September.
“We were hit by Hurricane Dorian as you know, which resulted in a few closures and cancellations in our camping parks,” she said.
“So our numbers did dip a little bit after those closures.”
She says despite the closures, the accessibility improvements to parks seemed to be a popular draw, and is something they intend to carry out in more parks in the future.
