County tourism growing despite bad spring weather

Waupoos Estates Winery is one of the wineries drawing tourists to Prince Edward County. Photo by Logan Somers, QNet News

By Logan Somers

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY – The past couple of summers have had a bad run of poor weather, but nonetheless tourists still come back to Prince Edward County in growing numbers, say officials.

Pending weather may halt the usual amount of tourists coming into the County, Sandbanks Park superintendent Robin Reilly said.

Although, even with the possibility of bad weather the number of tourists coming to the County is growing each year.

The Prince Edward County Chamber of Commerce says there are no definitive statistics to show how many tourists pass through the County. However, they can tell from statistics of the provincial parks that the number of tourists each year is growing.

Reilly says there are approximately 400,000 people who come through the gates of Sandbanks each year. The number of tourists who pass through the Sandbanks grows by three per cent annually, he said.

Tourism is “one of our economic drivers,” Prince Edward County Mayor Steve Ferguson said. “We’ve become a destination of choice for vacations.”

As of April 26, 2019 the Sandbanks is officially open. Photo by Logan Somers, QNet News

Ferguson says the provincial parks, like the Sandbanks, are a big part of the growing tourism in the County.

“They are unique to the province,” he said.

He added that the County’s wineries and breweries have become a large attraction for tourism.

Waupoos Winery is one of these places.

“Every year it’s getting more and more,” said Kyle Baldwin, the General Manager at Wapoous Winery, about the amount of tourism at the winery. However, it does fluctuate when the weather is poor, he said.

For them, tourism is very important.

“Tourism is our main businesses, so it makes up about 90 per cent of our business.”

Baldwin said they have been doing this 24 years.

“And over the past five years, it’s been increasing substantially,” he said.

He added that tourism has been growing at the winery since they started, but “2013 is were it really started to jump.”

Baldwin said he believes that one of the reasons the County is such a popular spot is because on how unique it is.

“The new 20- to 30-year-olds are looking for (non- commercialized) places, so the County is still unique as a farm community,” he said.

It’s no surprise that tourism in Prince Edward County continues to grow. With the help of its unique provincial parks, wineries, breweries and many other attractions. As Ferguson says, it’s a “pretty interesting spot.”