Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 02/00) - Local businesses in Yellowknife are reaping the benefits of a busy tourist season.

Mary Bryant, owner of the Bayside Bed and Breakfast and Mary and Friend's Tea Room, said all four bedrooms have been occupied on a continuous basis throughout the summer.

"I had a pretty good May, and I don't usually ... and June and July, so far, have been pretty good ," said Bryant.

Most of the guests at Bryant's bed and breakfast hail from southern Canada and the United States, England, Europe, Germany and just this week, Finland. She claims to have at least 250 names registered in her guest book over the past two months.

"They're usually on their way some place else but they deliberately stop in Yellowknife because they feel it's something they want to see. They're usually on their way to a river trip or a lodge somewhere," she said.

Joan Hirons, owner of Island Bed and Breakfast, said she has also been up to full occupancy throughout the summer.

"It's really good this year," she said.

Guests registered at Island Bed and Breakfast over the past two months have been from Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, New Zealand and Japan, just to name a few.

Hirons said the visitors usually head out on fishing and hiking expeditions, attend special events such as Folk on the Rocks and Ravin' Mad Daze, and tour the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and the Legislative Assembly.

Finnish visitor Petri Villanen said he and a friend had planned for years to visit Yellowknife, after reading many books and articles about the natural beauty of Canada's North.

"We are going to go hunting for two weeks and then we are going to come back and study Yellowknife for four days," said Villanen.

Rebecca Jaud, manager of the Visitor's Centre, said the number of visitors to the North have gone up by at least 700 people so far this year.

However, she said the last week of July was much slower. "It was really strange, the campgrounds were slower, our operators were slower, there wasn't as many tours at the legislative assembly ... things just went quiet all of a sudden," said Jaud.

Despite a slow week, Jaud said about 7,700 tourists have signed the Visitor's Centre's guest book in the year 2000.