Nathan Vanderklippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 04/02) - Despite assumptions that the Yellowknife tourism market is sheltered from world events, the end of last year saw a sharp dip in Japanese tourist numbers.

Chris Marynowich unloads baggage from a First Air flight. The airline was forced to wrap up its direct flight between Vancouver and Yellowknife because of huge numbers of Japanese cancellations. - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

Most people are blaming the events of Sept. 11, which created a fear of flying, a Japanese government advisory against international travel and cancellations.

The no-shows forced First Air to announce an early end to its new direct Yellowknife-Vancouver route before the first flight left the ground.

According to First Air vice-president Jim Ballingal, the bottom fell out on bookings after Sept. 11. The high season was scheduled to run until April 7.

First Air was counting on more than 14,000 customers to make the route a success. But tourist agencies cancelled 70 per cent of their block bookings, forcing suspension of the service by Jan. 13.

Other businesses saw similar numbers. The Explorer Hotel, which hosts a large number of Japanese tourists, saw only 23 per cent of its booked blocks filled.

"We were hurt quite substantially for a while," said hotel operations director Denis Olmstead. But, he added, "we definitely are going up percentage-wise," and he expects strong numbers through spring.

"The December and early part of January business has been reduced because the market was seriously affected with the Sept. 11 phenomena," said Bill Tait, president of Raven Tours, a company that usually brings in 11,000 Japanese every year.

However, he said tourist figures from February to September "are coming back to a level that should be the same as last year."