Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 06/02) - Big game hunters spend a lot of cash in the North but the industry needs better marketing and improved service.

More than 100 tour operators from all different types of tourism sectors throughout the NWT met in Yellowknife last week for the NWT Arctic Tourism's annual general meeting and conference.

A startling disclosure from the meeting were the negative results generated in a recent tourist exit survey.

When 414 visiting sport hunters were asked about their Northern experiences, 200 had negative things to say.

The key concern was Air Canada.

But the second issue was about Northern guides. Complaints ranged from drunkenness to lack of experience.

"We don't have the financial resources to identify everybody's product," said the agency's marketing director David Grindlay. So the group's strategy is to stretch its meagre budget and package the territory as one product.

Marketing the North was the key topic during lectures and in private conversations at the lunch tables. Speakers like Jim Kellet from Kellet Communications tipped tour operators on ways to get their names out to the world. And Hillary Jones from Arslanian Cutting Works explained how to transfer diamond marketing to the tourism industry.

"That gave us a pretty decent snapshot of who our hunting customers are," said Grindlay.

Mostly American sport hunters spend millions in the NWT annually hunting caribou, polar bears, muskox and sheep.

The survey isn't out officially yet but will be released in September.

"People will be surprised to learn the value of this sector. The hunter spends more than the Japanese or eco-tourists," said Grindlay.