"You can't rely on people just wandering into town and enjoying themselves. We have to promote," said Jacqueline McLean, general manager of the visitors centre. "You can say, come to Yellowknife. People want to know why? What can you do there?

In 1997, NWT Arctic Tourism reported that ferry crossings and traffic was down during peak times about 14 per cent.

Drop-ins at Yellowknife's visitors centre have also been declining.

In 1995, the total number of visitors was 12,616, in 1996 it was down to 11,986 and in 1997 just 11,572 visitors dropped by the centre.

Much more can be done to market and promote the city, said McLean.

"Whenever we do things, we being the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, Northern Frontier Visitors Association and the city of Yellowknife we always have to keep in the back of our mind that we have to promote Yellowknife as a place to visit and a place to come," said McLean.

One of the areas that needs improvement is providing activities for tourists.

There also needs to be much more product development and finding of souvenirs for tourists, said McLean.

"If you're bringing in 2,000 visitors into Yellowknife and I'm running a drug store. What can I do to bring people into my store?" asked McLean.

"Tourism and visitation is all about filling someone else's expectation or fantasy or whatever they have. You can't just decide, 'this is my product and I'm marketing it. If you don't like it, go away,' and then cry that you're not getting business. You really have to look at what the market is."

Winter activities with Japanese tourists work quite well, said Mclean.

The two major tour operators, Raven Tours and Canadian Ex, have strong links with local business that specifically cater to tourists. They offer to visitors everything from dog-sledding to Inuit cultural exchanges.

The visitors centre's prime focus this year to promote Yellowknife is to advertise specifically in recreational market magazines such as bus-conversion magazines.

They've also placed a couple of ads in xxCanada Travel, a journal that's translated into German.

In two months a Web site will be produced promoting the city.

"Generally though, anything that we have is not really designed to market Yellowkife. It's information people would have once they've already made their decision to come," said McLean.

"That's where we're lacking and that's why we feel the number of visitors are down as far as Yellowknife is concerned."

The visitors centre is owned by the Northern Frontier Visitors association, which is set up to raise money to promote Yellowknife as a destination and to promote Yellowknife as the gateway to the new western territory and Nunavut. It works closely with partners the city and the NWT Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development.

Peter Neugebauer, a former government director of tourism development for the GNWT, said he did not want to comment about the tourism industry in Yellowknife.

Now director of economic development with the city, he said he is in the middle of launching a campaign.

"I'm currently developing a work plan that will include tourism promotion," said Neugebauer.