Maritime campgrounds filling up fast for summer season

The summer season is approaching and if you haven't booked your camp site in the Maritimes you might be out of luck, they are filling up fast.

"The May two-four weekend, that's definitely opening weekend for summer season, people think that way, operators think that way, tourists think that way it's typically one of the nicer weekends as the weather starts to break,” said Andrew McNair with Tourism Industry Association New Brunswick.

Glamp Camp in Waterborough, N.B., is booked every weekend until July.

"The tourism industry is so well organized and everyone has preplanned everything so well because they know these are the dates that are always going to be very busy so people plan quite a bit ahead,” said Shekhar Dhayagude, co-owner of Glamp Camp.

"So we had this weekend booked for Victoria Day maybe three months ago," he said.

But there is a change this season since they opened three years ago.

Those working from home have been able to work from camping sites such as Glamp Camp.

That’s changed since many pandemic measures were lifted.

"The week day slots are the ones that we're having a little bit of a problem to fill. The only reason that I think is that people can go back to work with fewer restrictions, people have the option to travel to different places," Dhayagude said.

For Liberty Village in Richibucto, N.B., they're also seeing a change in bookings this year.

"One thing that we've definitely noticed this year versus the last two years is wedding groups. We found with COVID over the last two years a lot people were hesitant to host their weddings, to host their groups just because there was so much unknown," said Sawyer Hannay, owner of Liberty Village.

Tourism Association of New Brunswick expects this to be a busy year for the accommodations and hospitality industry.

"We're going to see a lot more from away now that restrictions are opened and borders are opening, we're going to see a lot more people travelling now there's going to be a lot more people from outside the province, but there's still going to be a lot of people from within the province,” McNair said.