It was announced today, Feb. 27, that Ben Cowan-Dewar has stepped down as board chair of Tourism Nova Scotia to accept the position of chair of the federal Crown corporation Destination Canada.

Irene d’Entremont of Yarmouth will assume the role of interim chair until a replacement is appointed. She has served as vice-chair of the board since the organization was established as a Crown corporation in 2015.

“I wish to thank Ben Cowan-Dewar for his service, and congratulate him on his new role,” said Mark Furey, minister responsible for Tourism Nova Scotia. “As the visionary behind Cabot Links Resort and managing partner, he’s certainly provided great leadership and insight to Tourism Nova Scotia over the past several years.”

He was appointed chair of the Nova Scotia Tourism Agency in January 2014 when it was structured as a special operating agency. He led the organization’s move to a Crown corporation in 2015. Inspired by the challenge laid out in the 2014 Now or Never Report he championed the creation of the strategy to increase tourism revenues to $4 billion by 2024. The new strategy was adopted by Tourism Nova Scotia in 2015 and is already delivering results, with Nova Scotia experiencing record visitation growth of eight per cent in 2016.

Source: Release