Donna Huffam
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 22/99) - With the average Yellowknife temperature down to -30 C, many Northern minds tend to meander to sunnier climes.

But it appears that over the New Year's holiday, most people are preferring to stay at home no matter what the weather.

Y2K concerns have many travellers revamping their plans in order to avoid travelling over Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

Evelyn Nind, a travel agent with Marlin Travel, says for those that are making their break out of the city, many have booked returns by the end of December.

"People are coming back around December 30 and they're not travelling on the first. Some people think it's going to be fine, but some people are concerned," Nind says.

More optimistic travellers are hoping for some travel bargains as hotel chains and vacation clubs seek to fill empty spaces over the holidays.

"There seem to be a lot of vacancies. I think the tour companies miscalculated. They thought people would go out anyway. They didn't realize that people were concerned. There are some specials out now," Nind says.

Doris MacIntosh, Top of the World Travel's vacation travel supervisor, notes that package vacation companies have been surprised by the reticence to travel over the holiday season.

"Usually Christmas and New Year's are completely sold out by now, but this year there's still space. Usually by September, October, it's unheard of to get space for Christmas and New Year's, which means that less people are travelling. I think that partly reflects that (Y2K) fear." "But," adds Top of the World's president Kim Warner, "the prices were a lot higher earlier in the year because the companies were expecting people to travel.

"They've now dropped appreciably. There's still even cruise space available," Warner says.

While some travel agents may be concerned about this seasonal dip in travel, MacIntosh is not.

"As a result of this dip, other months are heavily booked, such as January and February. Some people just aren't allowed to travel over the millennium change, such as the RCMP and military people. So the fall was very, very busy and we see that coming into the new year as well."

Nind feels that there is only a marginal chance of Y2K problems within Canada, but she notes, "Some people think it's better to be safe than being stuck somewhere."

For those travelling outside the country over the New Year holiday, one can only hope that if they do get stuck, it's somewhere warm.