Inuvik (Aug 15/03) - While the rest of Canada may be suffering through one of the worst tourism seasons in history, Inuvik has shown no drop this year in visitors, says John Bass of Arctic Nature Tours.

Arctic Nature Tours is the store-front operation for various tour groups in the Mackenzie Delta and for visitors travelling from Inuvik to points North.

"I think that it's definitely been a better volume than last year," Bass said.

With SARS, the mad cow scare and all the negative press flowing out of America, the tour groups were not expecting a big season.

"We didn't really know what to expect with all the world issues of the war and the economy in general just being uncertain," Bass said.

He says the clientele served by tourism here are more adventurous than most and also put more thought into their trips.

"Being this remote, it's a destination that takes a bit of planning -- you don't just chose to come to Inuvik on a whim," he said.

"People put a lot of planning into vacations here."

He said he's heard that the Yukon has seen fewer visitors this year, but that would contradict the numbers here.

"That would come as a surprise to me, because a high portion of our traffic comes up the Dempster," Bass said.

The group offers tours to Herschel Island, Holman, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Aklavik, but Bass said Tuk is always the most popular tour.

"Tuk is always going to be the most popular, because it's the end of the continent; the frontier and that's the goal for many visitors," he said. "On a surface level, Aklavik may be just as interesting of a community, but it just doesn't have the drawing power Tuktoyaktuk has."

Arctic Nature Tours had one couple this year who chartered a plane to see all the communities.

"They chartered a plane over two days and they were able to touch down in five of the communities," he said.

"They were ecstatic and they really felt that they got value for their money, being able to do all that."

While the summer season offers many activities for tourists, Bass said there still is room for more entrepreneurs to fill the market with a wider variety of attractions and activities.

He also thinks the late winter and spring markets could be opened up more to accommodate visitors.

"I think before breakup and through the spring offers great opportunity with the long daylight hours, but the market hasn't been developed to the extent that it could be," Bass said.