Yellowknife (Sep 26/03) - The party plans are already in the works for the 25th birthday of the Road to Resources.

The 720-kilometre Dempster Highway opened Aug. 18, 1979 and communities from Dawson City to Inuvik are planning a year's worth of events to honour that occasion. It is the only public highway north of the Arctic Circle in Canada open year round.

Last week, a group of about 30 people met at Inuvik's town hall to discuss what events and activities might be appropriate for the anniversary.

Colleen Mitchell, tourism co-ordinator for the Town of Inuvik said they narrowed the list down to about 15 items and they will work from there.

At another meeting between Inuvik and Dawson City committee members last Thursday, Mitchell said the groundwork was laid for some preliminary plans between the two communities joined by the highway.

"People like to be at the Arctic Circle for summer solstice, so we kind of worked around that date," Mitchell said.

She said Dawson would hold a celebration near June 20, the solstice on the 21st and Inuvik would likely host an event on June 23.

She said they are hoping to revive the theatre group to do the East 3 story and perhaps four 15-minute skits about the Dempster.

For the anniversary of the ribbon-cutting, Mitchell hopes to have something big planned.

"Ideally we'd like to see a music festival take place in Inuvik," she said.

Each community along the Dempster will develop plans throughout the year to celebrate the anniversary.

Snow machine and dog races in the winter along with traditional and Northern games were some of the ideas brought forward at the meeting.

Mitchell said there will be banners at each end of the highway and certificates for travelling the highway.

Tourism comes to town

The NWT Association of Tourism will hold their annual general meeting in Inuvik Nov. 6-8, coupled with a tourism conference.

"Two days of sessions and workshops and roundtable discussions," said Desjardins, communications manager for the association.

The NWTAT sent out queries to all the members asking for input on what they would like to see on the agenda for the conference.

"We want to know what they want to learn," he said.

He estimates 75 to 125 delegates will come to the conference, where they will discuss marketing, developing web pages, brochures, booking and business plans.

This is the first time the meeting will be held outside of Yellowknife and Desjardins, a former Inuvik resident, is glad to see the meeting come to Inuvik.

"It's great to have it in Inuvik," he said. "We get a lot of members from Inuvik coming to Yellowknife faithfully and that's great, but this is a good way for operators to find out what's in other communities."

The tourism association will revive their awards this year. Desjardins said with all the woes facing tourism industry professionals lately it might be real boost.

"It's been the perfect storm for our industry and I think it's critical that this program be re-introduced this year," he said.

The awards will include Operator of the Year, Service Excellence Award and Lifetime Achievement.

Registration forms will be sent out to members next week.