Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 01/01) - Months of community planning came to fruition this past week when almost 200 tourists descended upon the hamlet of Rankin Inlet.

The tourists were from the cruise ships Le Levant and the Loffe.

Interaction between the community of Rankin Inlet and tourists from the cruise ship Le Levant has been steadily increasing during the past three years. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

Le Levant has been coming to Rankin Inlet for the past three years and the community's interaction with the ship's passengers has been growing steadily each year.

The Loffe is a Russian vessel chartered by the Ontario Art Galleries Association.

This year, displays were set up at the Meliadine archaeological site, which the 120 visitors from Le Lavant visited on Monday, July 23.

A cultural program was also held for the visitors, covering such topics as tools and traditions, traditional tent making, cooking with moss and stone and a traditional fashion show among others.

The cultural program and arts display resulted from the combined efforts of a community group comprised of elders, Nunavut Tourism, Kivalliq tours, the hamlet of Rankin Inlet, the Department of Sustainable Development and Kivalliq tour guides.

In preparation for the visit, local tour guides completed courses on customer service and heritage interpretation.

Customer service training was offered by Nunavut Tourism, while heritage training was a joint effort between Nunavut Tourism, the hamlet of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Arctic College and the Keewatin Community college in Thompson, Man.

Claire Harrington runs Nunavut Tourism's Visitor Information Centre in Rankin Inlet.

She says the two visits generated a total of about $9,000 in arts-and-crafts sales for the community.

"The visits were successful on all fronts in terms to them being a benefit to the community," says Harrington.

"They created a positive image of the North to these people and felt like great community events.

"It was nice for everybody to come together and put on an event that was really appreciated by both the visitors and the community.

"Hopefully this was the foundation for bigger and better things to come."