‘It’s been my busiest year’: 2025 tourism numbers trend up in New Brunswick

The 2025 tourism season is wrapping up across the Maritimes.

Wednesday marked the last scheduled triple cruise ship day of the season in Saint John, N.B., making for a busy October morning in the city’s uptown core.

For Peter Ferguson, who runs a guided tour of the city known as Pete’s Historic Walking Tour, it was one last busy day of 2025.

“It’s been my busiest year, I’ve been doing it for four seasons and it’s certainly the busiest by far,” Ferguson says. “Starting right back in April right through the whole season, a record year for tourism I’m sure for Saint John.”

New Brunswick as a whole saw a tourism uptick this year. According to the Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture, visitor spending reached $1.8 billion by the end of August. Compared to the same time from 2024, it is an increase of seven per cent.

Tourism highlights include:

• attraction visits: 678,000 – up 20 per cent from 2024
• parks visitation: 1.187 million – up 10.52 per cent
• room night sales (roofed accommodations): down 0.8 per cent
• combined room night sales (including short-term rentals): up 3.1 per cent

“These results show that New Brunswick continues to attract visitors looking for authentic, year-round experiences,” communications officer Jess Hearn said in an email. “From our vibrant cities to our coastal and cultural destinations, tourism is playing a vital role in driving economic growth across the province. As the fall season continues, New Brunswick welcomes visitors to explore the province’s scenic landscapes, festivals, and local flavours.”

Among the province’s more popular tourist destinations is the seaside town of Saint Andrews along New Brunswick’s southern shores.

Brad Henderson is the managing director of the Kingsbrae Garden, one of the town’s most popular attractions. While the year got off to a slow start with some rain, a sunny second half of summer made up for it all.

“We were actually up over 20 per cent over last year, which was a record year for Kingsbrae,” says Henderson. “We had almost 40,000 people, and that does not include people that eat in the restaurant and members. When you add that number together, it’s almost double.”

Henderson says the extra funds allowed them to keep staff on longer and through the winter.

The sunny weather for most of summer was one reason behind the tourism spike, but also a newfound patriotic wave among Canadians to support local while a trade war rages on with the United States.

Henderson says the number of American tourists who visited town felt on par with past years, but he noticed more Canadians than ever electing to take their summer vacations within the country.

“July 1 is like the Mega Day in Saint Andrews,” Henderson says. “But there were multiple weekends where businesses were saying that they felt just as busy as Canada Day.”

The cruise ship season plays a big role in the province’s tourism numbers, especially during September and October.

Port Saint John director of marketing, cruise and engagement Natalie Allaby says it was a record year for the port with 83 ships having made call by the end of next week. The previous record was 79 ships, set back in 2019.

Part of that higher-than-ever number was a week straight of triple ship days at the end of September and start of October brought on by ships being rerouted due to southern storms.

“It was a really fun week,” says Allaby. “Our team was really excited because we knew it was going to break some records. Everyone just rolled out the red carpet, as we always do in Saint John, to provide those passengers with a really great welcome.”

While the ship season beings millions of dollars into uptown, the ripple effects of more ships in the port benefits much of the province.

“Cruise tourism is really more than an Uptown Saint John success story, it’s really a southern New Brunswick success story,” says Allaby “There’s whale watching tours happening down in Saint Andrews, folks are going up to the Hopewell Rocks and everywhere in between. It’s equating to over $85 million in economic impact for our region.”

Allaby expects final numbers from the cruise ship season to be available in the coming weeks.

On Thursday New Brunswick Tourism Minister Isabelle Thériault is expected to unveil a new tourism strategy for the province, one that will look to build off the big summer.

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.