Strong finish to summer tourism season
While visits have been lower, overall there has been a trend upward
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 25, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Despite the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre not receiving as many tourists this summer, the centre's executive director said there is no reason to believe tourism numbers are trending downward.
Tracy Therrien, left, executive director of the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, stands next to centre spokesperson Elijah Forget. Both say tourism numbers are down at the centre this summer, but the overall trend points upward. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo
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"The beginning of the summer, May and June, our numbers were definitely down," said Tracy Therrien. "Our theory, based on no statistical facts, was the fires."
She said she thought with the fire in Fort McMurray making headlines globally, some people may have shied away from the area. However, that's just a theory.
In 2014-15, 15,000 people visited the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre. In May of this year, the number of people who signed the guestbook at the centre was 1,470. In June it was 2,994, in July - 3,018 and in August, as of Friday, it was 2,681.
According to Therrien, this July's numbers were close to par with last year and August is already ahead. This is more in line with trends she and Elijah Forget, spokesperson for the centre, have seen over the past few years - more people are coming.
The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment's manager of tourism industry services, Kwame Neba, and the department's manager of research and planning, András Lukács, agree with Therrien and Forget's assessment.
"It looks like our parks numbers in the North Slave area is up," Lukács said. "Looking at our airport data it looks like we're going to be up again."
What attracts people to Yellowknife in the summertime tends to be fishing or camping.
"Early indications show fishing numbers going up," Lukács said. "Business travel is (also) very big for us . Because people (who) haven't been here, they add a day or two."
Also, there are the Northern lights. Forget said he's noticed in recent years there has been an increase in the August numbers at the centre because tourists have discovered they can see them and stay warm during the fall. This has transformed late summer, early fall into the centre's busiest time.
"For a lot of people coming from the countries with almost tropical climates, like China, Japan or Korea, coming here in -40 C is a bit of a challenge," said Forget.
According to Forget, the Northern lights are dependent on solar activity, which tends to be cyclical. He said the frequency of solar storms hit a peak 2015 and is now entering a decline. That said, Yellowknife, unlike other parts of the territory, is located in an area where even when the solar winds are calm, the aurora still shines above the city.
Because of these factors, Forget said it's difficult to say how tourism in the city will look in a few years.
"I don't want to predict when I know the aurora is going to get weaker," he said.
Forget warned against using tourism trends in Yellowknife as an indicator for trends across the territory, which is something Neba agrees with.
"Those are very different tourist markets," Neba said about the communities.
A total of $146 million was generated for the territory through tourism during the 2014-15 fiscal year, and, according to Lukacs, a majority of that money is spent near Yellowknife.
"Roughly two-thirds of that stays in the North Slave Area," he said, adding that on average, 70,000 people come to the North Slave area yearly.
