by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

The sight of Japanese visitors in Yellowknife to see the Northern Lights has been a familiar one for a decade, but the NWT does not have the business to itself.

Take Fairbanks, a city of 80,000 in east-central Alaska carving out its own reputation as a place to see the Lights. Tour operators there boast that someone who comes to their city for three days has an 80 per cent chance of seeing a bright auroral display.

"Fairbanks is one of the best viewing spots for the Lights," says Cindy Caserta, who works for the city's tourism centre.

"Unlike Anchorage, Fairbanks is small enough that you can walk out of town for five minutes and it's dark enough to get a really good view of the Lights."

The city sells itself and its attractions hard in Japanese-language promotions and Caserta says it is increasingly known as a auroral destination.

However, Barry Stoneman, who looks after regional tourism for the territorial government, countered that visitors to Yellowknife have a 95 per cent chance of seeing the aurora during a three-day stay because our skies are less cloudy than those over Fairbanks.

"Yellowknife is probably the best place in the world to see the Lights," he said.

Between 2,000 and 2,500 tourists came here to see the Lights last year, he said, staying an average three days and spending between $750 and $1,000 each. The number of such tourists has been growing by up to 25 per cent each year, with even more expected now that Taiwan is beginning to take an interest in the Lights.

Mok Kumagi, a Japanese-American who worked for private tour operators in Alaska before shifting into promotion, says his state estimates that between 10,000 and 12,000 Japanese visitors arrive each winter, but he figures the actual number is no more than 7,000.

He is uncertain why Asians are lured to the Lights but notes that whatever the magic is, it runs very deeply in the culture.

"They did a poll in Japan a few years ago where they asked people what things they would like to see before they die, and the pyramids was No. 1, with the aurora borealis No. 2."

Kumagi does dispute one bit of lore about the Lights prevalent both in Alaska and here: that Japanese believe children conceived under the Lights will be blessed with good fortune.

"That's a total myth," Kumagi said with obvious amusement. "I would ask groups if they ever heard of this, and tell them it was what people were saying about them, and they would start laughing. None of them had ever heard of it before. It sounds like a story some Fairbanksian made up."