Summer in Nova Scotia can sometimes mean a mixed bag of rain, drizzle and fog.
For many businesses who rely on sunny skies, such type of weather can mean a blow to their bottom line.
But a stretch of hot temperatures and sunny skies this year has meant booming business for some in downtown Halifax.
“I’ve been running rickshaw for 14 years in Halifax,” said Jordan Conway of Last Of The Old Kind Rickshaws.
“This has been the best year in the last three years. I love it.”
Conway said this is the first summer in three years they didn’t have to install canopies on the rickshaws.
He said while they do the bulk of their business at night during cabaret hours, the warm weather this summer has meant an increase in business during the day.
“It means the world to us. As rickshaw runners we have students from all walks of life running for us,” he said.
“It means university tuition paid for, bills paid for, and a whole lot of fun, especially for the tourists.”
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Numbers from earlier this year show visitation to Nova Scotia was up by 4.3% in the first half of the year.
Staff at Murphy’s the Cable Wharf said they’ve also noticed higher-than-usual volumes this summer.
“The weather has been gorgeous and that’s bringing people out in droves. It’s been a lot busier than it was last summer,” said Shauna Krasuski.
“We fill up the patio every day because every day seems to be patio weather.”
Krasuski said many of their tours including the Harbour Hopper and Tall Ship Silva are continuously full, and it’s not just tourists filling the boats.
“We’ve been getting a lot more local people coming out this year I found,” she said.
“I think they are so excited about the nice weather we’re having so they’re coming out so much more than they’ve ever done before.”
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The impact is also being felt at other restaurants along the boardwalk.
“I’ve been working here for four years now and this has been the busiest summer we’ve had since I started working here,” said Kara Friesen, manager at Waterfront Warehouse.
Freisen said they’ve been serving a lot of tourists on their patio.
She hopes the warm weather will entice them to come back next year.
“They’re really more likely to see what Nova Scotia is all about which is the outdoors, enjoying lobsters, oysters and beer on a patio,” she said.
Nova Scotia saw close to 800,000 tourists within the first six months of 2016, with most of them coming from other provinces.
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