Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jun 22/98) - With tourism worth several million dollars, Nunavut Tourism's executive director wants to know how much of the tourism pie has been served up in the East.

"Not only do we need to know for ourselves and for the (tourism) industry, to better develop product or to improve quality, but it also helps us to convince policy makers of what value there is to Nunavut and to convince them to put more money and more resources into it," Cheri Kemp-Kinnear said.

To get a handle on the numbers of visitors coming to the Eastern Arctic and to decipher how much money they are injecting into the Nunavut economy, an exit survey is currently being conducted.

Anyone who departs Nunavut will have the opportunity to fill out a questionnaire at the airport and on the plane. First Air is the only airline co-operating to date, but Kemp-Kinnear is hopeful that Air NorTerra Inc. (formerly Canadian North) and Calm Air will come on board.

"When you leave Nunavut, you're leaving from Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak, Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet. We have more of a window to catch people because of the longer period of time but also because we're catching people on airplanes leaving, not just before they get on the plane."

Along with general personal information like age and income, the survey asks the visitor why they came to Nunavut, how they would rate the services and how they could be improved and how much money they spent during their trip.

The goal is to legitimately get "true visitor demographics," Kemp-Kinnear said.

When the exit survey has been completed by September, Kemp-Kinnear said Nunavut Tourism will use the numbers to figure out how to better market the East and determine what products or services need to be made available to visitors in Nunavut communities.

"You've got to be able to deliver product development for tourism programs, for arts and crafts and other things that are related to tourism and to deliver marketing and training to bring people up to meet those needs. You need more resources and that's where you have to convince policy makers of what value tourism is to the economy."

Employed by Nunavut Tourism since 1995, Kemp-Kinnear says past tourism surveys were done on an NWT-wide basis and didn't reflect how many people visited the East or their spending.

The estimated results of various 1994 NWT visitor surveys show that a total of 17,413 people visited Nunavut and spent about $12 million. Overall, 105,229 people came to Nunavut circulating $111,753,803 in the economy.

Kemp-Kinnear said the old surveys are somewhat inaccurate because they came out late in the tourist season and numbers were based partly on information extrapolated from western visitors. "Unfortunately, those were the kinds of numbers used in determining the kinds of tourism revenue and the industry didn't perceive them as accurate."

Nunavut Tourism chairperson Paul Landry said the surveys will allow tourism workers to make more appropriate plans in the years to come.

"We need the information to help us deliver next year's and other year's marketing plans," Landry, who co-owns Iqaluit-based adventure tourism company NorthWinds, said.

"We hope we'll see satisfied tourists."