Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 20/02) - Northern nights are getting longer and Japanese visitors are returning to Yellowknife, hoping to catch a glimpse of the aurora borealis.

Katsuhiro Mouri checks out the ice of Back Bay. Mouri is an astronomer and hopes to see a glimpse of the Northern night sky. - Thorunn Howatt/NNSL photo

Raven Tours welcomed its first crew of winter-season guests on the weekend.

"The success rate for viewing is 96 per cent," said Raven Tours' Bill Tait. "That's why Yellowknife works. That's the reason they come here."

Last year, the number of Japanese tourists to Yellowknife plummeted to about 65 per cent of previous year's numbers because many Asians feared visiting North America after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The number dropped from nearly 14,000 Japanese to about 9,000. It's a 20-hour journey from Tokyo to see the Northern Lights in Yellowknife. This year's Japanese visitor numbers are back on track to pre-Sept. 11 expectations.

Japanese tour operators market Yellowknife aggressively.

On this end, Tait made seven trips to Japan last year and, along with airlines, restaurants and hotels, paid the way for many Japanese tour operators, giving them a taste of what the North has to offer.

Aurora tours cost Japanese visitors between $1,500 and $4,500 each. Raven Tours has already hosted about 1,350 autumn season visitors and expects about 300 more by the end of the month. About 8,000 are expected to visit Raven Tours' facilities over the course of the season.

Japanese tour groups are divided into two basic types: groups of more than 10 and individual travellers.

Last year there was only one group type.

But this year there have already been six groups.

Before Sept. 11, 2001 the number of Japanese visitors to the North increased rapidly since the early '90s when there was virtually no market. Raven Tours, along with two other Yellowknife tour operators Canadian Ex and Aurora Village, were expecting last year to be a blockbuster. First Air even added a scheduled flight named the Aurora Express to accommodate thousands of visitors from Vancouver. But after ramping up staff and operations, the terrorism dealt an unforgiving blow. The route was grounded and Raven Tours was forced to layoff nearly half of its NWT employees.