A look at the future of tourism
Access to capital and human resource training among challenges in Fort Simpson
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 30, 2014
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Access to capital and resources for ongoing training are two of the primary challenges facing the tourism industry in Fort Simpson.
A raft is seen during Thomas Simpson School's rafting trip in the Nahanni National Park Reserve in 2010. The park reserve, the Mackenzie and Liard Rivers and local lakes should be taken advantage of as tourist draws, according to participants in input gathering sessions in Fort Simpson for Tourism 2020. - photo courtesy of Nicki Crawley
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On Oct. 21 the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment held two sessions in the village to gather insight and input from people involved in the tourism industry. The comments will be used to create Tourism 2020, a new plan that will guide the territorial government's activities and investments into tourism over the next five years.
"We received a lot of very good commentary and feedback from the community," said Mike Mageean, the department's regional superintendent.
The department's staff who led the sessions heard that people supported the current plan, Tourism 2015, but would like to see some improvements made to the new version. Areas that are a challenge, including access to capital to fund the long and short-term requirements of businesses, support for human resource training and highway conditions, are among the items that people want to see Tourism 2020 address, he said.
Opportunities as well as challenges were mulled over by the 12 people in the afternoon session and three in the evening session. Cultural and spiritual tourism, including the use of the Papal site in Fort Simpson, is seen as a major opportunity, said Mageean. Participants also talked about taking advantage of the Nahanni National Park Reserve, the Mackenzie and Liard Rivers and local lakes as a tourism draw.
There are opportunities that haven't been capitalized on yet, said Bob Norwegian, who attended the evening session.
"I think the ice break-up is more interesting than going to Virginia Falls," he said.
The need for a central information database that tourists, marketers and operators could use was also discussed. Angela Fiebelkorn, the president of the Fort Simpson Chamber of Commerce, said she gets frequent calls from people outside of the region looking for someone to make them items like beaded moccasins and leather vests. It would be good to have access to a list of traditional artists to point them directly to, she said.
Another priority and opportunity that was identified is targeting the rest of Canada as a prime market. A good target group in Canada is seniors and bus trips for them, Fiebelkorn said.
"They are bored and they have money," she said.
In addition to the sessions in Fort Simpson, department staff have also been visiting other Deh Cho communities and engaging people on the new plan. The ideas gathered in the Deh Cho and the rest of the territory will be incorporated into a draft that is expected to be circulated to interested parties in the territory. The final version of Tourism 2020 is scheduled to be completed by the end of February.
