SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - You know the well-worn adage: if you build it, they will come.

Well, they've already come - more and more every year - so what's a guy to do next?

Don Morin, owner of Aurora Village, has the answer: expand your focus.

Early next month, Morin, a former premier who began operating his Northern Lights tourist haven during the 2000-2001 winter season, will offer four-hour boat cruises on Great Slave Lake that will include a tour of Yellowknife Bay houseboats and a shore lunch with food provided by commercial fishers.

"It's got nothing to do with Aurora viewing," said Morin, who has purchased several 26-foot traditional freighter boats from a company in Quebec. "Aurora viewing and boats just don't mix for the simple reason that you can't travel at night because it's not safe.

"This is for general tourists."

Morin said he first thought about the idea two years ago, when an associate told him about a similar tour he took while camping in his RV in Arizona.

Morin's cruises will occur every day from July 1 to Sept. 15.

"If the lake is too rough, then we'll bring them out to Aurora Village instead of going out on the lake so they can see the camp and they can relax out there."

Considering the growing number of visitors to Aurora Village, which is nestled near Prosperous Lake off the Ingraham Trail, you might think Morin would be content to let things be. But Yellowknife tourists could always use things to do, he said.

"A lot of people come to Yellowknife and it gives them the opportunity to experience other things rather than downtown Yellowknife," said Morin, who already provides his Aurora Village customers on-site activities like dogsledding as well as tours of Yellowknife during the day.

"We can use a lot more product in the Northwest Territories," echoed Gerry LePrieur, executive director of NWT Tourism. "If (Don) takes on this tour, he will be successful in that."

In his first winter season, from November 2000 to April 2001, Morin accommodated 450 visitors at Aurora Village. His second operating year came in the wake of 9/11.

"We stayed the same. We saw no growth," said Morin.

But the business quickly recovered, taking on more guests - 90 per cent of them Japanese - every year.

This past winter season, Aurora Village - which also operates during September and August - hit its winter peak at 5,700 guests - and that had nothing to do with his main competitor, Aurora World, folding last November and providing Aurora Village some customers, said Morin.

"We got very few (bookings) from Aurora World," he said.

In addition to the new boat tour, Morin is expanding the dining hall on his site, increasing the number of seats from 50 to 100. Between the tipis and other facilities at the camp, Aurora Village can now host about 400 people. The new dining hall will be ready by August.

"If you don't invest, you'll never make a go of it," said Morin. "You'll always stay still. And if you stay still in business, you're going backwards as far as I'm concerned."

While most of his customers come from Japan, Morin is getting more and more tourists from countries like Canada, the U.S. and China.

"I think our biggest growth potential over the long run is the Korean market. That will come."

Morin's Japanese-speaking general manager, Hideo Nagatani, has visited North Korea a few times to test the market, but now Morin has someone on contract developing the market for him directly out of that country

"We're working on it," he said.

LePrieur attributes part of Morin's success to Nagatani, who used to work for tourism agencies in Vancouver before Morin snatched him up.

"He was quite connected in Vancouver with the Asian market and somewhat of an expert in the Japanese Aurora markets, so Don brought him on board and that's really a real key to his success," said LePrieur.

Of the 30 guides who worked at Aurora Village last winter - each of whom caters to 16 guests - 18 spoke Japanese, said Morin.

Guests are picked up at the airport upon their arrival, driven to their hotel and supplied with all manner of Northern clothing.

"We have 450 sets of clothing - that's the parka, the boots, the pants, the mitts, the hats. We supply everything," he said.

Most guests stay for four days, viewing the Northern Lights every night from 8:30 p.m. onward.

"It's gotten so that there's less spikes and more consistent numbers, which is easier to deal with as a business," said Morin.

Not that he's resting easy: there's always some potential obstacle waiting around corner.

"Our biggest worry right now is the swine flu," he said. We're finally building up the Asian market back to the numbers it was prior to 9/11 for Canada, and then all of a sudden that swine flu came out and Air Canada had 10,000 cancellations for the month of May - those are the kind of things that would affect us."

"People do get nervous about travelling," said LePrieur. "With the swine flu virus going around, it too may have an effect on all tourism. Not only them; airlines, as well."

For now, Morin is busy preparing the Aurora Village for the first stream of visitors in August. His sons Mike, Denecho and Clarke are currently removing outgrowth from the site.

"We work hard at it and we do everything ourselves," said Morin.