The 2024 solar eclipse is bringing attention — and tourism to New Brunswick.
The CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick (TIANB), Luis Cardoso, said he knows about people travelling to the event from Brazil.
“It’s already impacted tourism, we have people coming from all over the world to New Brunswick to see it,” he said.
That tourism is bringing business — like the Delta Hotels by Marriott in Fredericton, where reservations are nearly full on Sunday and later into the week.
“It’s certainly great for this time of year,” the hotel’s general manager, Sara Holyoke said.
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Organizations around Fredericton planned eclipse-related events as part of the city’s EclipseFest, including an astronomy talk, a watch party, and a planetarium show.
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is displaying a painting of an eclipse.
Its manager of collections, John Leroux, said the weekend was busy with visitors from around the world.
“There was a real good chance that the skies were going to be cloudy and you wouldn’t actually be able to see the eclipse, so we thought this was a chance for people to actually see a full eclipse,” he said. He did note the weather is predicted to be clear.
Spencer Beggs and his daughter Elouise travelled to Fredericton from Dalhousie, N.B. to view the eclipse in its line of totality.
They viewed the eclipse painting, and Beggs said they were visiting the eclipse-related tourist attractions.
“We’re pretty excited about the eclipse, everybody has eclipse fever, so there’s lots to do, lots to see,” he said.
Cardoso said the event draws attention to another opportunity — astronomy-related tourism, or what he called “astrotourism.”
He said New Brunswick’s rural areas and four dark sky preserves provide opportunities to view the stars.
“Eighty-five per cent of the world lives under polluted skies. That puts us in a pretty unique situation to take advantage of astrotourism,” he said.
But, during EclipseFest, all attention will be on the daytime sky.
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