First day for online bookings at Nova Scotia campgrounds sees high demand

Online booking for N.S. campgrounds opens N.S. provincial campgrounds opened online bookings Tuesday, within minutes thousands joined a line to book a site. Jonathan MacInis reports.

On Tuesday, Nova Scotia opened its reservation system for a half a dozen campgrounds in the southwestern region, but due to high demand, the Department of Natural Resources only opened a few of its 20 campgrounds at a time.

Maddy Cox, a camping expert, says they've seen several couples and campers looking for tents.

"We are looking forward to another record-breaking year for Nova Scotia Parks," says Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton.

By mid-afternoon, over 7,200 bookings were made, causing a partial shutdown of the website.

As the parks prepare to open in full for the summer, Rushton doesn't anticipate issues with hiring enough staff to cover the duties at the campgrounds.

"It's about 180 staff that are seasonal workers and we really had no issues in previous years, and I'm not anticipating anything this year," says Rushton.

Camper Sarah Thompson and her husband moved to Nova Scotia from Ontario in December, citing recreation as a major reason as to why they made the move.

"We came here for the nature specifically, so we’re definitely out there hiking all the time, and we have our eyes set on a few campgrounds, so I'm sure we will be visiting some soon," says Thompson.

Despite demand, Minister Rushton says he isn't expecting the province to extend the camping season because many staff are students who will return to school in the fall.