To build on the tourism industry's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Nova Scotia launched its new marketing "Your Ocean Playground campaign" campaign on  March 6.

Joann Fitzgerald, chief marketing officer at Tourism Nova Scotia, said the brand new marketing campaign encourages people to spend their vacation time and money in Nova Scotia.

Joann Fitzgerald is the chief marketing officer at Tourism Nova Scotia. Photo contributed.

"'Your Ocean Playground' campaign highlights the wide variety of wonderful things to do here in Nova Scotia. So what's really working to set us apart from our, our other maritime and Atlantic Canada friends, and really owning the ocean and all the wonderful things that come out of that and it doesn't mean it has to be something directly connected to the ocean but influenced by the ocean," said Fitzgerald.

She said that tourism in Nova Scotia has increased in the past year.

"Nova Scotia really has really shown strong tourism recovery in 2022. Like many, we had suffered through the pandemic. But in 2022, we welcomed over 1.9 million visitors to Nova Scotia, and that's a million more visitors compared to 2021," said Fitzgerald.

Statistics show that in April 2022, Nova Scotia's tourism activity was 30.4% below April 2019 levels.

While some businesses continue to face challenges because of the pandemic, she said that recovery is slowly starting and hopes the campaign this year will help Nova Scotia's business industries grow.

Statistics also show that visitation did not reach pre-pandemic levels, with 2022 representing a decline of 18% (or 415,000 fewer visitors) compared with 2019.

The campaign shows a couple walking across the 13,000 kilometers of sea coast here in Nova Scotia, as well as trying to demonstrate all the different places to see and things to do from coast to coast, Fitzgerald said.

The campaign will run through the end of summer in Ontario, Quebec, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.

Listen to the full CKDU interview below: