This is the first story if a three-part series exploring the aurora tourism industry in Yellowknife - the tourists, the tour operators, and the challenging nature of the business.
Erika Sherk
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 17/07) - "My biggest purpose is to see the northern lights," said Ryoichi Takaishi, of Kanazawa, Japan.
He's not the only one. Yellowknife saw 10,200 aurora tourists last winter, according to the GNWT.
Before the creation of a tourism industry focused on viewing the aurora borealis, there was virtually no winter tourism in Yellowknife. Now, it brings millions of dollars into the NWT economy annually.
The industry has become more cutthroat in recent years, according to those in the business.
The first organized aurora tours in 1989 attracted about 100 tourists. By 2000-2001, the number of visitors had grown to 12,316.
Numbers of travellers nosedived after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the SARS outbreaks of early 2003. As well, competitors are encroaching worldwide - Alaska, the Scandinavian countries, even northern Alberta - Yellowknife no longer dominates.
Still, operators said that while it is more challenging, business is good. Japanese people still want to see the lights and want to see them in the NWT's capital.
Groups of excited Japanese tourists in matching red parkas and rented boots wander about town and buy out the gift shops. It's a common sight for Yellowknife.
They come great distances and often at great expense.
But what is the connection between the northern lights and the inhabitants of a country so very far away? What is the connection between Yellowknife and Japan? The answer, it seems, is as mysterious as the lights themselves.
The story goes back centuries, according to those who cater to the Asian aurora-seekers.
"A long, long time ago they used to have aurora in Japan," said Ron Ostrom, director of marketing for NWT Tourism.
"It's become part of their folklore and they seem to be quite enamoured with it."
"If you talk to the average Japanese person part of their mission statement in life is to witness this phenomenon," said Daryl Dolynny, president and CEO of Aurora World, an aurora tourism operator in Yellowknife.
According to Ragnar Wesstrom, president of Enodah Wilderness Travel Ltd., "99.9 per cent of our clients come from Japan."
"It's all about the aurora for them."
The Japanese are the primary market, said Ostrom, when it comes to aurora tourism in Yellowknife. While it starts with viewing the aurora, visitors also get to experience a range of Northern activities, from dog sledding to ice fishing.
Away from the city's light pollution, the tourists, almost all of whom are Japanese, will spend hours gazing spellbound at the North's unique seasonal show.
"These people never go to sleep if the aurora is really good," said Dolynny.
"By the time they leave, they are very, very tired."
Wesstrom has had Japanese clients fall asleep while riding on snowmobiles, he said, exhausted from spending entire nights with the aurora.
"It's kind of a dream for Japanese to see the northern lights," said Sage Suzuki, whose aurora tour company, Canadian Ex, was one of the first in Yellowknife.
The tour operators said they never get tired of watching their clients' dreams realized.
"Some people are really crying," said Suzuki.
"Sometimes it's oohs and aahs," said Dolynny. "Other times it's like a football touchdown where you're hearing cheers and clapping and roars from the crowd."
When asked why the northern lights are so special, Rio Satomi was at a loss for words: "I don't know ... I'm not sure.
He moved from Tokyo to work for Canadian Ex five years ago.
"Japanese like natural phenomenon," he said. "The Arctic region is a special area for Japanese - it's a totally different environment."
"Hmmm ... good question," said Roichi Takaishi, when asked why the lights are so important in Japanese culture. "I think the Japanese are sensitive to beauty."
Takaishi said he saw aurora for the first time the previous day.
"No words," he said, when asked to describe how it felt.
Mitsuyo Saito, of Nara, Japan, on the other hand, had plenty of words.
"Amazing, fantastic, fabulous, incredible, special, beautiful!" she said.
"The northern lights are very famous in Japan," said her friend Mami Isomura. "When I was a child, already I know about them."
This fascination has made Japan the primary market for aurora tourism, said Ostrom.
Several tour operators make yearly trips to Japan to woo travel agents to send their clients to Yellowknife.
Yellowknife-based Aurora World even has an office in Tokyo. Set up last fall, "we wanted to be in the backyard of our clients," said Dolynny.
Numbers of Japanese tourists coming to Yellowknife appear to have peaked, according to stats compiled by GNWT tourism, but it doesn't appear that Japanese enthusiasm for the lights will die out any time soon.
"They are like a miracle to us," said Onoda, peering out the window in hopes of a glimpse of a dancing green glow.
Lucky light babies?
Most Yellowknifers have heard the rumour that Japanese flock to the northern lights because they believe it is good luck to conceive children beneath them.
Sounds chilly and uncomfortable. And untrue, as it turns out.
"One hundred per cent idiot" said Sage Suzuki, who was raised in Tokyo and now runs Canadian Ex aurora tours in Yellowknife.
"I asked about 1,000 people one season," he said. "Only one or two had even heard of it."
It all comes from a media report from the United States, said Suzuki, though he wasn't sure how the story had come to be. Jamie Noakes came to Yellowknife two years ago to study aurora tourism for a Northern geography class at university. She became intrigued by the rumour.
"My whole study changed and that's what I ended up focusing on," she said.
"The general consensus I got from everyone is that it's more false than actually true," she said.
Her conclusion backs up Suzuki's explanation - it can all be traced back to a TV show in the States, she said.
"And still people believe it," said Suzuki, with a rueful sigh.
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