Tourism pushes to improve fishing numbers
NWT angling visits in five-year decline
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 11, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A push is on to get more people to arm themselves with fishing poles and head out to local lakes and rivers after a recent survey found a 15 per cent drop in angling tourism.
Nathan Weremczuk, six-years-old, participates in the fish pond at the Spectacular NWT table at the farmer's market, Tuesday. The event was part of National Fishing Week which took place this week, from Monday to Friday. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo |
The statistics represent an ongoing trend over the past five years showing a steady slide in the number of fishing tourists visiting the territory.
Of the 76,400 people who came to the NWT last year, only 4,000 did so to cast a line in the water. In the fiscal year 2008-09, there were 7,300 fishing visitors but 3,000 fewer visitors overall.
The government has been in consultation with fishing lodge owners across the territory to find out why the
number of anglers have dropped so substantially, said Cathie Bolstad, executive director of NWT Tourism.
"The central issue for NWT Tourism is that our marketing campaigns for Spectacular NWT are strengthened in the area of the fishing sector," said Bolstad.
"We see a trend where the fishing sector has on average over the last five years decreased in our visitors. While we are seeing visitation to the NWT increase and our marketing is extremely successful, this is the one area that is our sore spot and we are trying to fix that."
Bolstad and NWT Tourism had a display table at the city farmers market on Tuesday to mark National Fishing Week. More importantly, however, the group wanted to showcase information on local fishing and boost participation among residents.
Bolstad said the government is looking to upgrade its marketing approach going into next year. The goal is to improve how both NWT Tourism and individual operators appeal to fishing tourists from southern Canada and the United States and ultimately have a bigger percentage of fishing destinations in North America.
In addition to surveys by Environics and Data Analysis with fishing lodge operators and surveys of anglers by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment earlier this year, focus groups are planned later this month in key fishing tourism markets in Edmonton, Toronto and Chicago.
Bolstad said she expects by the end of 2014 that NWT Tourism will have spent about $100,000 of a $2.8 million annual marketing budget.
It's unclear whether there has been a rise or fall in the number of resident anglers in the territory.
Bryan Chorostkowski, owner of Namushka Lodge on Harding Lake, about 60 km east of the city, said in recent years the NWT Tourism focus has been on finding new activities to draw new people North, rather than relying simply on fishing trips to bring traffic.
"They were focusing more on experimenting and finding something new to bring people in, whether it was snowshoeing with ptarmigan or skiing," he said.
"They were saying that 'consumptive tourism' - what they were calling fishing - was not a priority for them."
Chorostkowski said his lodge tends to focus more on drawing people from Yellowknife, so appealing to outsiders may not have as much effect on his business as other lodges.
He said there is a large difference between what he does and what other outfits appealing to American markets do, adding those operators have to worry more about economic conditions and the strength of the dollar.
Gordon Gin, owner and operator of Yellow Dog Lodge, along with Carlos Gonzales of Yellowknife Outdoor Adventures, are big proponents of the appeal to reverse declining fishing tourism numbers.
"We're looking more at anglers to import from outside the territory and that influx of imported dollars," he said,
He added that although the number of anglers coming in has represented a smaller percentage of overall tourists, typically they bring in new and larger amounts of money.
"If you ask a lodge operator, the fishing has never been better and the reason being is that there are no fishermen," said Gin.
"So the fish are staying in the lakes, which they should be. We have a product and we want to get it out to the masses."
