Paula White
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jun 11/99) - There's no way of knowing just how many tourists Judith Venaas is responsible for bringing to the Inuvik region.

But the numbers are probably impressive, considering how much promoting Venaas does alone -- especially during the four to six travel shows she attends each year in both Canada and the United States. She is often the only person manning the booth, which she has to set up and dismantle, and she often works eight to 12 hours a day during the shows, which are usually held on weekends.

"A lot of people think, 'It must be nice, another holiday,'" Venaas said. "(But) it certainly isn't."

Venaas is the regional tourism officer in the parks and tourism division of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development. She said her job description is basically "to assist in the development and marketing of tourism products in this region and to promote the area as a destination."

It sounds simple when put in a single sentence, but the job is anything but.

Venaas is essentially responsible for generating tourism for all eight of the communities in the Beaufort Delta. This involves referring tourists to the appropriate operators, depending on their interests, and even co-ordinating accommodation for individuals or groups coming to town. For example, Venaas recently set up accommodations for a film crew from Good Earth Productions (a Toronto-based company) who are coming to town later this month to work on a production about Tuktut Nogait National Park.

Venaas also works closely with the economic development officers in each of the communities. She helps each community put together promotional material in the form of videos and brochures, to be placed in various information centres. She is currently putting together a marketing plan for Holman, for example.

"There's lots of opportunity here," Venaas said, and explained that the industry has a lot of room to expand. Currently, the season is only about three months long, which means most tourism operators hold full-time jobs and only work in tourism part-time.

"But we're trying to change that," she said. "We're working on trying to market winter tourism to expand the season and that would then make it more viable for some people to be involved in tourism year-round."

Another of Venaas' responsibilities is receiving all the licences for the tourism establishments in the region.

If that isn't enough, she also oversees two visitor information centres -- one here in Inuvik and one in Dawson City. Venaas said the centre in Dawson was opened in the hopes of talking Yukon tourists into making the trip up the Dempster Highway. Dawson City, she added, gets about 60,000 tourists each year.

As for the travel shows, Venaas is often on the road for January, February and March of each year, singing the praises of the region. This promotional period has proved to be very successful.

"The first year we did the Palmer (Alaska) show we saw immediate results," Venaas said. "We had people drive the Dempster two weeks later."

Venaas first began working for the parks and tourism division in January of 1995. Just before coming to Inuvik, she worked in Edmonton for four years with a hotel chain. Before that, however, she worked in the Yukon for 11 years -- six with the Yukon Visitors' Association and five with Northward Airlines. Prior to that, she was based in Yellowknife, working again for Northward and also in the retail and car rental businesses. Venaas said she has always worked in the tourism industry in one capacity or another.

"I started off at the age of 12 as a waitress in a little local restaurant at home," she remembered. Venaas was raised in Saskatchewan.

Venaas said, like most people, she originally intended to stay for only a short time on her first trip to Inuvik. She worked for six weeks for a friend who owned a tour company.

"I liked it so much that I committed to come back the next year," she said. The following winter, the Bank of Montreal needed to fill a short-term position, so Venaas "decided to go there and learn the banking business."

The next summer she was back working for the tour company. This eventually led to her current position.

Venaas said her favourite part of the job is working with the people of the region. Another is when she speaks to people at travel shows about what the region has to offer and then is contacted some weeks or months later by those same people during a subsequent visit.

"That gives you a feeling of satisfaction because you've spoken to someone about the region and then they actually do come."

All in all, the job keeps her busy, both on the road and in the office.

"It's a busy position, but I make it busy too, I guess," she said. "I mean, I love the job. There is so much potential."