Jennifer Obleman
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 2, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - The Northern lights could be dancing above more Korean faces this spring as aurora tourism operators expand their markets.

Aurora World signed a contract with a Korean tour operator in December, said board chair Darryl Bohnet.

After the number of Japanese tourists coming to Yellowknife to see the Northern Lights dropped last year, Aurora World began looking into new markets. The company signed a contract with a Korean tour operator in December. - photo courtesy of Aurora World

"We're doing this on a trial basis this year to see how it goes. We hope to expand from the Japanese market to Korea," he said.

"The tour operator has already launched a significant ad campaign, so we're waiting to see how it pays off."

The Korean contract was partly prompted by the decline in Japanese visitors, which Bohnet attributes in part to Alaskan competition.

"I think we bottomed out last year due to the Alaskan government underwriting charters for tour operators in Alaska," he said.

According to data from the NWT department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, there were just over 7,000 aurora visitors in the NWT in 2006-07, down from approximately 10,200 in 2004-05 and 13,000 in 2000-01, and close to the 6,500 visitors in 2001-02 - a year when tourism dropped dramatically following significant world events such as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the war in Iraq.

NWT operators are hoping to recapture a portion of the Japanese market this year. According to Bohnet, November numbers and indications from Japanese tour operators are pointing to a 15 to 20 per cent increase over last year.

But Aurora World is also planning to diversify its clientele to include other Asian markets, such as Korea and China.

The company sent a representative on the GNWT's trip to China in 2007, and has made preliminary contacts there, said Bohnet.

"Once we get the Korean market solidified, that (China) will be our next step," he said.

He said Aurora World plans to focus more on the Chinese market in about three to five years, following the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Bohnet said the company's board is "cautiously optimistic" about the future of Aurora tourism in the NWT.

He said the introduction of Air Canada's direct flights from Vancouver to Yellowknife in December was a positive development for the industry.

"We want to be able to eventually fill those planes and encourage the use of bigger planes," he said.

Air Canada Jazz will use a 50-seat Bombardier CRJ to fly the route daily until April.

The Vancouver-Yellowknife flights are timed to connect with flights from destinations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Korea, and passengers from Asia have been connecting, said Air Canada spokesperson Angela Mah. Mah declined to comment on how many Asian passengers have taken the Vancouver-Yellowknife flight or release information on how full the flights have been so far, citing competition as the reason.

Aurora Village manager Hideo Nagatani said the company does have clients coming into Yellowknife on the direct flights. The Yk tourism operator is also looking at Asian markets such as Korea, Taiwan and China as well as other markets, but Aurora Village will maintain its focus on Japan, said Hideo.

"Developing other markets, it's so small compared to what the Japanese market has been and will be for years to come," he said.

"Just because Japan is decreasing, American or European numbers are not going to supplement that. It will fill a little part of it. It's not as simple as Japanese numbers go down, let's market in America ... It will take years (to develop new markets)."

Japanese tourists make up about 75 per cent of Aurora Village's clientele. According to Hideo, last year was the first year the company did not see growth in the Japanese market.

Hideo said the company has increased its marketing efforts this year, though he wouldn't say by how much. He said Aurora Village has increased its Internet presence with a reworked Japanese version of the website.