Cabot Trail restaurant owners hope for record-breaking tourism season
Ossama Nasrallah, the owner of Main Street Restaurant and Bakery in Ingonish, said this season is one of the best the restaurant has seen. He said revenue is up 30 per cent over last the same period year.
Main Street opened for the season in May. Nasrallah said the month started out slow because of lousy weather. Throughout June, the number of tourists he's been serving is comparable to what he would typically see in mid-July. He expects the numbers to skyrocket once school gets out.
"We're expecting to see a record-breaking July and August," he said.
Tourism season on the island usually peaks in those months.
Nasrallah attributed much of the increase to Canadians choosing to travel within the country. He said he's getting more Canadians than ever before.
Because of the demand, Nasrallah added a takeout window that closes at 11 p.m. AT, rather than the restaurant's usual closing hour of 8 p.m.
Glenda Ogley, the owner of The Clucking Hen Cafe and Bakery on the North Shore, welcomes the increased business, but said it's hard finding staff.
"We're so busy, so it's scary to think that we're not in our busy season yet," she said.
Ogley said she's seeing more Canadians, but also more Americans.
"We're getting them from all over," she said. "It's a lot."
When he first opened for the year, Nasrallah thought Americans would avoid travelling to Canada out of fear of being unwelcome. But he said for most of them, the Cabot Trail is on their bucket list.
"We're really showing them the Nova Scotian hospitality, from the second they arrive," he said.
CBC News also spoke with seven other restaurants around the trail. The owners wouldn't agree to interviews, but many said they were seeing similar increases to that of Nasrallah and Ogley.
Terry Smith, the CEO of Destination Cape Breton, said Canadians have been choosing the East and West coasts for their vacations this year.
"The Cabot Trail is the No. 1 reason why people come, not only to Cape Breton Island, but to Nova Scotia," he said.
From June 20 to Sept. 2, admission is free to Parks Canada's national parks and historic sites.
"We were already probably on a path to having a really good season, but this is really going to put it into what could be, potentially, a record year," said Smith.
MORE TOP STORIES
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Grades, head-scratchers and more analysis from Day 1 of free agency
NBA free agency is moving fast and furious. Tuesday's biggest move was a stunner in Milwaukee. Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images Getty Images Day 1 of free agency is in the books, and we don't really have the big free agent everybody is looking to grab this year. We mostly have a lot of trades happening, and teams wondering if Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to give up on being with the Milwaukee Bucks for life. Teams around the league are still trying to figure out life in the era of the crippling second apron, and we're seeing teams fully start to grasp how much they need to avoid that Trojan horse hard cap the owners worked into the collective bargaining agreement. Still, we had a lot happen through the first official day of free agency. All of that and more is covered below. GO FURTHER NBA free agency 2025: Grades, head-scratchers and more analysis from Day 1 Sando Mamukelashvili's contract with Toronto would leave the Raptors slightly in the luxury tax, with the potential to end up deeper if incentives on Jakob Poeltl, Immanuel Quickley and R.J. Barrett hit. A simple way to take the tax out of play would be trade Ochai Agbaji — owed $6.4 million in the final year of his contract — and then sign second-round pick Alijah Martin into the Raptors' 14th roster spot. Kevin Sousa / Getty Images The Toronto Raptors have agreed to sign 26-year-old big man Sandro Mamukelashvili to a two-year, $5.5 million contract with a second year player option, a team source confirmed. Mamukelashvili averaged 6.3 points per game for the San Antonio Spurs last season. Getty Images For so long, Trae Young seemed destined for an eventual trade. The Atlanta Hawks' All-Star guard was always a tremendous playmaker, but his ball dominance and defensive vulnerability made building a contender around him a quagmire. It meant Young lived in trade rumors every silly season. The Hawks made the Eastern Conference Finals years ago with Young, so there had to be a solution to get there once again. Now, after a dramatic yearlong makeover, the Hawks may have a shot at returning. Following years of Young trade rumors, the Hawks have built a team optimized to fit around the recently evolved version of him. GO FURTHER Hawks' rapid rebuild around Trae Young comes full circle, so is he still Atlanta's future? Getty Images There has been a lot said about the rapid influx of money into the NBA in recent years. The league is now minting future billionaires. It will likely soon have its first player making $100 million annually. The owners are doing fine, too, in case anyone had their concerns — the Los Angeles Lakers just sold at a $10 billion valuation, if you hadn't heard. But Sunday's contract agreement between the Houston Rockets and Jabari Smith Jr. felt like an inflection point. It felt like the NBA's first deal where there was just too much money to pass up. Smith intends to sign a five-year, $122 million extension with the Rockets. It was a bit surprising because Smith has not been supremely impressive since he went No. 3 in the 2022 NBA Draft, and Houston has a deep well of promising young talent it will need to pay soon, while also facing encroaching cap issues. The Rockets had until October to negotiate an extension with Smith but it did not seem like a pressing concern. They got a deal done, though. GO FURTHER What Jabari Smith Jr.'s extension tells us about the state of NBA player salaries Alex Slitz / Getty Images League sources say Damian Lillard is elated with the Bucks' decision to waive and stretch his contract, as it puts him in the kind of basketball-first position that few All-Star level players, if any, have experienced in league history. In short, he'll be able to join the contending team of his choosing, either sometime soon or perhaps next summer, without the financial aspect of the decision playing a significant part. With Lillard owed $54.1 million for this coming season and $58.4 million in the 2026-27 campaign, there is a salary offset for any team that acquires him during that two-year period. And while the Bucks would surely prefer that Lillard sign for a significant salary as a way to alleviate some of their financial burden, the reality is that he could sign for a minimum-salary deal and still be paid the same amount. That's a powerful place to be when you're a future Hall of Famer in your mid-30s who has never won a championship. Not surprisingly, league sources say Lillard received calls from several contending teams very quickly after the news of his Bucks' ending broke. The question now is whether he wants to sign with a team now and rehabilitate while under their care or wait until next summer to reassess the situation. All in all, it's a dream scenario for Lillard. Especially considering he might have been heading for a change of scenery even before his injury. GO FURTHER Bucks waiving Damian Lillard to make room to sign Myles Turner: Sources Getty Images The Lakers' timeline situation ever since Luka Dončić was gifted to them back in early February has looked bizarre. Life was almost simpler before that trade. They could've aimed to ride out the LeBron James-Anthony Davis chapter until the wheels fell off. From there, they could've started selling Lakers mystique to new big stars in hopes of furthering their legacy and hanging more banners. Maybe it's not a foolproof plan and super easy to execute, but it's worked enough times in the franchise's history. And it worked after they signed LeBron back in 2018. Then, Dallas sent Dončić to the Lakers, which has changed just about everything. The Lakers now have to start playing for the future and present-day championship stability. The funny thing is lead executive Rob Pelinka was already trying to toe that line, as he wasn't ready to relinquish assets for another LeBron-Davis-led championship pursuit. Now, the Lakers must build around Dončić and aim for championship stability. The problem is LeBron is still very much on this team. Before free agency opened, he picked up his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season. It will be his 23rd season, just a mind-boggling number when you consider his résumé, mileage and current production. GO FURTHER LeBron James is no longer the Lakers' top priority. What's next for both parties? Both Detroit and Sacramento would benefit from turning Dennis Schröder's signing in Sacramento into a sign-and-trade. Detroit would gain a large trade exception — likely $14.1 million — they could potentially use in another deal this summer to bring in talent, while the Kings could take Schröder into their existing $16.8 million Kevin Hurter trade exception and leave their nontaxpayer midlevel exception open for other free agency moves. Because Schröder's deal is for three years, a sign-and-trade would be allowable. John Fisher / Getty Images Jericho Sims has agreed to a two-year contract to return to the Milwaukee Bucks, with the second year a player option, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images Dennis Schröder has agreed to a 3-year, $45 million contract with the Sacramento Kings, a league source confirmed. The Kings will be Schröder's 10th NBA team and fourth in the last nine months. The common theme in the Rockets' in-house business or their outward acquisitions is experience. Fred VanVleet, Steven Adams and Clint Capela are 31. Dorian Finney-Smith is 32. Kevin Durant is 36. As long as Ime Udoka has been at the helm, his voice within the organization has risen, and the 47-year-old has been vocal about his preference for older veterans. And as such, given the aforementioned alignment with Houston's front office and ownership, the team has fulfilled his wishes. After Houston's Game 7 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Udoka's end-of-season news conference drove home the point about the need for improved IQ and the power of experience, buzzwords that typically precede roster changes. Make no mistake: The Rockets' offseason is off to an excellent start. The overarching theme in negotiations has been maintaining financial leverage, all while building a roster that is built for now and later. The two-timeline approach is risky in a vacuum, but context, mainly personnel, is important. It might not have worked out in the Bay with James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga, but those are different players from Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith, Tari Eason and even Reed Sheppard. Still, it's jarring to see Houston move in this manner, particularly because of how quickly its methodology has shifted. Perhaps that's why it's difficult to quantify the magnitude of its summer business to this point. For years, the Rockets' ethos was patience and perseverance, opting to accumulate losses, build through the draft and maintain enough elasticity to capitalize at an opportune moment. That moment is now. The Rockets have peeled back the curtain on what was once a rebuild, laying out a championship-capable core. Read more on Houston's active start to free agency here. GO FURTHER Rockets want to balance experience with youth, and they're off to a great start Geoff Burke / Imagn Not only is the Jonas Valančiūnas acquisition great on the floor for the Nuggets, it gives Nikola Jokić an old foil for a teammate. Jokić joked about their joint physicality last December, when he scored a career-high 56 points, along with 16 rebounds and 8 assists against the Wizards – and Valančiūnas, who was then in Washington and who spent most of the night in a pitched, hard-nosed but good-natured battle with the Joker. Valančiūnas did just fine as well, with 20 points, 12 rebounds, 5 blocks and 5 assists in an improbable Wizards win. 'I had a couple of really good wrestling moves down there with Jonas,' Jokić said afterward. 'I think Jonas's wrestling, it's always interesting. I always talk to him normally, and it's always a little bit physical. I mean, it should be. We're big boys from Europe. We're kind of used to being in the contact. I think that's how it's supposed to be. Good rivalry.' GO FURTHER Nuggets waste Nikola Jokić's career night in inexplicable loss to woeful Wizards New Knicks signee Guerschon Yabusele is a good player and a good fit that fills a need. He can play the 5 and run next to Karl-Anthony Towns or Mitchell Robinson. Opponents need to guard him beyond the arc. I'm not obsessed with the second-year player option, given the Knicks' potential 2026-27 payroll. But sometimes that's the cost of doing business for a good player. Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn While everyone else is focused on the Bucks right now, the Dario Sarić for Jonas Valančiūnas trade is an absolutely incredible deal for the Denver Nuggets. They just traded $5 million in dead weight to the Sacramento Kings to get the best backup center of the Nikola Jokić era. Denver now is $2.4 million below the luxury tax line with at least on roster spot to fill. If that spot is a veteran minimum deal for $2.3 million, they will just barely stay under the tax and avoid the repeater penalty this year. Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn The Denver Nuggets have acquired Jonas Valančiūnas from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Dario Sarić, team sources confirmed to The Athletic. The Nuggets have had an incredible two days. Getty Images The Bucks made two moves that make sense individually but also raise an eyebrow when looked at collectively. They will pay Myles Turner an average of nearly $27 million per season and will get an above-average starting center for that contract who fits well on a Giannis Antetokounmpo team and should be a very capable replacement for Brook Lopez. They will also stretch-waive Damian Lillard, which means the Bucks will have a $22,516,574 cap charge on their books for each of the next five season. That makes sense too since he was essentially going to be an empty $54.13 million cap hit next season as he rehabbed from a torn Achilles. The last season of that contract was unlikely to be very productive either since he would be 36 and returning in his first season from that injury. The Bucks clearly want to remain competitive next season with Antetokounmpo and that makes sense too since they want to take advantage of his prime, let alone any concerns about losing him down the line. Still, they will now effectively be spending $49 million per season for the last two years on Turner's deal, and have another year of $22.5 million on the books after that. That could be about 12 percent (or more) of the cap in the 2027-28 season, which is more than a nontaxpayer midlevel exception would earn. We shall see if this set of moves will be worth it. Getty Images This is why I criticized the Pacers for taking Andrew Nembhard's salary from $2 million to $18 million for 2025-26 when they didn't have to in his extension last summer. It set the Pacers up to be way into the luxury tax, and you know when it came down to it that Indiana would blink rather than pay it. Keeping Myles Turner on the books for this year at $24 million would have been no sweat if Nembhard was still on his cheap rookie deal, but the Pacers turned the final year of it into a much bigger salary. That extension looked extravagant at the time — $56 million in new money for just two years — and despite Nembhard's playoff heroics, the Pacers are paying the price for it now. GO FURTHER The NBA offseason's most under-scrutinized moves, from Immanuel Quickley to Max Christie One thing you gotta hand to the Bucks: Any time it seems they need to operate with urgency to show a multi-time MVP they're trying to build a contender, they do it. Page 2
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- Washington Post
North Koreans swim and play at a beach resort touted as a boost for tourism
SEOUL, South Korea — North Koreans swam, rode water park slides and enjoyed other water activities at a newly opened mammoth beach resort, state media reported Wednesday, as the country largely maintains a ban on the entry of foreign tourists. The Wonsan-Kalma eastern coastal tourist zone, which North Korea says can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, is at the heart of leader Kim Jong Un's push to boost tourism as a way to improve his country's struggling economy. But prospects for the resort, the biggest tourist complex in North Korea, aren't clear, as the country won't likely fully reopen its borders and embrace Western tourists anytime soon, observers say.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
North Koreans swim and play at a beach resort touted as a boost for tourism
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Koreans swam, rode water park slides and enjoyed other water activities at a newly opened mammoth beach resort, state media reported Wednesday, as the country largely maintains a ban on the entry of foreign tourists. The Wonsan-Kalma eastern coastal tourist zone, which North Korea says can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, is at the heart of leader Kim Jong Un's push to boost tourism as a way to improve his country's struggling economy. But prospects for the resort, the biggest tourist complex in North Korea, aren't clear, as the country won't likely fully reopen its borders and embrace Western tourists anytime soon, observers say. The official Korean Central News Agency reported the Wonsan-Kalma area began service Tuesday, drawing a large number of North Koreans who enjoyed open water swimming, slides and other attractions at a water park and various water activities in the area. 'The guests' hearts were filled with overwhelming emotion as they felt the astonishing new heights of our-style tourism culture blossoming under the era of the Workers' Party," KCNA said in a typical propaganda-driven dispatch. Photos released by North Korean state media showed children with tubes and inflatable balls dipping into the sea, while others in colorful swimsuits beamed while sitting beneath red-and-white parasols. Kim said at the opening ceremony last week the site would be recorded as 'one of the greatest successes this year" and called its opening 'the proud first step' toward realizing the government's policy of developing tourism. State media said North Korea has plans to build similar tourist zones around the country. North Korea, however, hasn't said whether and when it would fully resume international tourism that is key to their success. Since 2022, North Korea has been slowly easing the curbs imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and reopening its borders in phases. But Chinese group tours, which made up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic, remain stalled while there are questions about ties between the two socialist neighbors. In February this year, North Korea allowed a small group of international tourists to visit its northeastern border city of Rason, only to stop that tour program in less than a month. Since February 2024, North Korea has been accepting Russian tourists amid expanding military cooperation between the countries. But Russian government records seen by South Korean experts show a little more than 2,000 Russians, only about 880 of them tourists, visited North Korea last year, a number that is too small to revive North Korea's tourism. Russia's Primorsky region, which borders North Korea, said last week that the first group of Russian tourists to the Wonsan-Kalma resort will depart on July 7 for a eight-day trip that includes a visit to Pyongyang. ___ Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report. Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press
