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QIKIQTARJUAQ - Billy Arnaquq is one of the newer contestants in the expanding tourism industry in Nunavut. His small outfitting business is in its third year, introducing adventurous souls to the natural beauty of the land around Arnaquq's home in Qikiqtarjuaq.

"I look after them during the day and I take them to my cabin in the evening," Arnaquq said.

Qikiqtarjuarq outfitter Billy Arnaquq has plans to expand his business of catering to visitors to Auyuittuq National Park. - Gabriel Zarate/NNSL photo

Arnaquq hosts 50 to 60 tourists per year, in two different ways depending on the season. In the spring when the worst of the winter cold is over, Arnaquq takes visitors to his cabin north of his community. They go out for three days of dog-sledding followed by three days on snow machines.

In the summer Arnaquq's business caters to hikers travelling between Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung through Auyuittuq National Park. He drops them off and picks them up as necessary on the Qikiqtarjuaq side of the park by boat. The trek through the park typically takes at least a week or two, though Arnaquq said it's possible to do it in five days.

"You have to be determined to do that," he said.

Auyuittuq National Park's mountainous landscape enjoyed its international moment of fame in the 1977 movie The Spy Who Loved Me. The park's Mount Asgard was the site of a downhill-skiing shootout between James Bond and Soviet agents.

Arnaquq hopes to expand his promising summer business with a new, larger boat.

In summer, park visitors need a ride more of than 40 km through a fiord into the park. His present vessel can only carry seven passengers. The larger boat he wants can hold 15.

He's also recently finished a new cabin between Qikiqtarjuaq and the park where he and his customers can stay during the summer season.

Arnaquq has applied for a special permit from Parks Canada to allow him to take tourists by snow machine into the park, which is normally prohibited.

If his permit is approved, he could take spring tourists all the way to the foot of Mount Thor, the highest overhanging rock face in the in the world. Mount Thor's sheer face is popular with enthusiast of extreme sports such as parachuting and mountain climbing and some world records have been broken there.