Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 26/99) - Caralene Vanderaegen is the first person many visitors to Yellowknife speak to.

The administrative assistant at the Northern Frontier Regional Visitors Centre said about 40 per cent of her time on the job is spent speaking to tourists.

"I love it," said Vanderaegen of her job. "I've been in the tourism industry and sectors of it for 13 years now. There's something new every day, I get to talk to all kinds of different people, do brain work on the computers and artistic work designing pamphlets."

Raised in Fort Simpson, Vanderaegen has a knowledge of the North many Yellowknifers, let alone tourists, could learn from.

"I grew up in the North and I like it here, and I'll probably be here for at least 20 more years."

In Vanderaegen's eyes, there is one significant ingredient missing from the North -- mountains.

Vanderaegen came to appreciate the beauty of mountains while attending school in Kamloops, B.C. There, she completed a program in events and convention management at the University College of the Cariboo.

Vanderaegen said the most common types of questions she gets from visitors concern things to do in Yellowknife.

"It's nice, because a lot more people and businesses in town are directing people to the visitors centre, and a lot more residents are coming."

Of course, there have been a few doozies, like some people who called up about a visit in July to go dogsledding.

The visitors change with the season. RV travellers make up a lot of the summer traffic. In the spring and fall there are a lot of hunters and fishermen. While summer numbers are a little down, the Northern Lights watchers of winter, mostly from Japan, are growing by leaps and bounds.

"We had over 750 visitors come into the centre in January," reported Vanderaegen. "The same month last year we had 430."

Along with offering guidance to visitors, Vanderaegen's duties include organizing rentals of visitors' centre facilities, administering a membership data base and helping to put together tourism events.

For example, though we are in the grip of winter, the centre's staff are already organizing this summer's float plane fly-in, slated for June 25-27.

Though you might see Vanderaegen there, by that time, of course, she'll be thinking about the winter to come.