Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 21/01) - Aurora borealis sight-seeing ventures are big business for Yellowknife tourism operators.

Leading the way is Raven Tours, which offers fall and winter packages to tourists who travel thousands of miles to catch a glimpse of Yellowknife's famous Northern lights.

A vast majority of them are from Japan. According to director of sales and marketing for Raven Tours Tricia Melander, news of last week's terrorism attack coincided with a cancellation from between 250 and 300 guests for the company's fall tours.

Raven Tours was expecting approximately 1,000 Japanese tourists this year.

"We had some cancellations," says Melander, who is still uncertain what might be in store for the winter season. "It's too early to tell with winter tourism."

Director of sales and marketing for Canadian North Kelly Kaylo says she is unaware of any cancellations for inbound passengers, other than last week's confusion caused airport closures, but knows there have been some South of 60.

In fact, Kaylo says she suspects the North's relative isolation may ultimately benefit the tourism industry here.

"We're sufficiently far away North that consumer confidence is still high travelling here," says Kaylo. "There will be an impact for sure, but not as much as it will be felt by our southern operators."