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Shelby Hamilton helps visitors to Hay River

Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (July 10/06) - For Shelby Hamilton, there are advantages to manning a tourism booth in her home community.

The tourism information officer in Hay River says people from other northern communities sometimes ask about people in town and assume she knows who they are talking about.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Shelby Hamilton is working for the summer at the Hay River Visitor Information Centre. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo


“They’re usually right because we do know who they are talking about,” says the 19-year-old.

Hamilton is one of three workers at the Hay River Visitor Information Centre, which opened on May and will stay open until mid-September. After that, she will be studying social work at a college in Niagara Falls, Ont.

In her job, she helps people from all over the North and elsewhere in the world. Many visitors come from Alberta and B.C., while others come from countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France.

“There are also quite a few Americans on their way to Alaska,” she notes.

Wherever they come from, many of the visitors have a common question, she notes. “What is there to do in Hay River?”

Many also ask where they can go fishing and want to know more things about Hay River and other NWT communities. They want information about campgrounds, ferry schedules, road conditions and local cuisine.

In preparation for supplying the answers, Hamilton says she read pamphlets, talked to businesses, visited the Hay River Heritage Centre, and dropped into government offices to gather information.

“I definitely know a lot more now,” she says of her knowledge of the North.

Hamilton, who was born and raised in Hay River, says she and other workers at the centre also call other people if they need information.

“We’ll call whoever we have to call to get the answer,” she says. “I call my dad a lot.”

Hamilton says she likes to help visitors because she has been a traveller herself in a foreign land, noting she has travelled to Costa Rica and parts of the United States.

“I know what it’s like to need information and not know where to go to get it,” she says.

That experience has helped her identify with the travellers.

“You have to be patient, especially when you hear the same questions every day,” she says. Hamilton also has to help people who speak very little English, noting they come in and look at the brochures and maps.

“I like meeting new people,” she says, noting some tell her about travelling for months in motorhomes.

“It’s really cool to think people want to come up here and look around.”

By the end of June, the Hay River Visitor Information Centre was visited by 373 people.