Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 15/99) - More people now camp in the South Slave region than any other part of the NWT, according to new statistics from the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED).

"There are more campers south of the (Great Slave) lake than north of the lake simply because the non-NWT-resident tourist numbers have increased," said Robin Reilly, who is RWED's director of parks and tourism.

"If you go back a few years, the North Slave region would have been the biggest region in terms of total bodies but now the South Slave gets more."

If NWT residents are excluded from the number of total campers, the Inuvik region is the next most visited region.

In the NWT as a whole, 10,903 parties or 29,130 people used NWT campgrounds in 1999.

These numbers are slightly up from 1998 where 9,042 parties or 22,792 people used the campgrounds.

The percentage of people who are NWT residents declined to 25 per cent of the total in 1999. In 1998, 29 per cent were NWT residents.

The number of Canadians from outside the NWT visiting NWT parks increased from 48 per cent of the total in 1998 to 51 per cent in 1999.

"In the South Slave we've got a reasonable amount of people from northern Alberta who have made coming North an annual event," Reilly said.

"They do a lot of fishing and camping -- particularly Mennonite folks who come into the NWT's southern parts. What they do is a one-day drive into the South Slave."

Another thing that has boosted the NWT camping numbers are the twice-a-week direct flights from Germany to Whitehorse.

One flight a week makes the trip directly from Switzerland.

Many German and Swiss tourists rent recreational vehicles and travel the Alaska Highway and the Dempster Highway.

"We've been improving the campgrounds along the way. That means including things like more showers and more electrical hook ups," Reilly said.

"Because the facilities are improved we're also charging more. It's about $12 as a kind of minimum per night and $15 for the upscale market. If you go back five years it would have been $5 or $8 or $10."

Reilly said while the campgrounds are being generally improved, they are also making do with less government money.

"In an era where budgets are declining we're offering a better product while the users are paying a higher percentage of the tab. The government is paying much less to keep the operations going," he said.