Canada's tourist industry received a boost last summer on the back of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's royal tour. And this year, the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, on 15 April, may also cause a surge in visitor numbers, particularly in Nova Scotia and the port city of Halifax, where 150 of those who perished were laid to rest. Most were crew, stewards or steerage passengers.
Only two, a Cuban named Servando Ovies RodrÃguez and William Harrison from Wallasey near Liverpool, were travelling in first-class cabins. The city's fine Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has the world's largest collection of objects recovered from the ship.
For anyone confident that lightning doesn't strike twice, Miles Morgan Travel (www.titanicmemorialcruise.co.uk) is organising two Titanic Memorial Cruises: a 12-night voyage embarks from Southampton on 8 April, calling at Cobh, County Cork, en route to Halifax; and another departs from New York on the 10th. Those who feel safer on dry land might prefer to stay at the boutique Cambridge Suites Hotel (www.cambridgesuiteshalifax.com; doubles from about £120) in downtown Halifax.
Don't restrict yourself to staying in town, though, because the real appeal of Nova Scotia is its undeveloped coast, with extraordinary rock formations and glorious colours. Especially spectacular is the all-but-deserted Eastern Shore and Bay of Fundy. Geological formations here are reckoned to date back to the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic eras, before the rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea. The tides are among the highest in the world, and there are
15 species of whale to watch.
For further information visit www.novascotiaseacoast.com
Pictured: View to Ingonish Island at dawn, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia