THEBACHA/FORT SMITH- Janna Jaque's face lights up when she talks about Wood Buffalo National Park. To her, the park is a territorial treasure, one she is eager to share with visitors from around the world or her hometown of Fort Smith.

Janna Jaque says she wants to help promote Fort Smith and contribute to northern development. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

The 26-year-old is in charge of the front lines of the park, overseeing the interpretive centre and the staff who greet visitors.

She said people come from around the world in search of wild bison, the unique topography or the thrill of rapids.

"People travel from Europe and Asia and every area of Canada just to see this place. They spend thousands of dollars to get here. They always say, 'wow, you get to live here?'" she said. "When you live in a place that is really beautiful and worth visiting, you don't really notice it. You kind of forget and take it for granted."

Jaque isn't one of those people. As visitor experience manager, she's working with Parks Canada to market the site as a tourist destination.

Unlike some Parks Canada sites across the country, Wood Buffalo doesn't charge hefty admission fees but its immense size – it's the largest national park in Canada and the second largest protected nature preserve in the world – make it difficult to monitor, but Jaque wants to increase visitors' interactions with staff.

One thousand people stop at the Visitor Information Centre every year. More than five times that number visit the actual park. Jacque said there is room for the number of park visitors to grow. She wants to promote the park not just to tourists from outside the NWT, but also to people already living in the North, who may not have considered making the trip.

She's pragmatic about the challenges of marketing the park, which covers an area equivalent to Denmark.

"It's not a shopping destination," she says. "We don't have a large business community that operates out of the park."

Part of Jaque's job will be finding ways to encourage people to visit and stay longer.

"For someone to understand the North, they have to come through Fort Smith," she says, pointing to the rich history of water transportation and the town's role as a "pseudo-capital" before Yellowknife was designated the territory's government centre.

Jaque isn't in any rush to leave Fort Smith either.

"I want to stick around and see things through," she said. Projects she has in mind include renewing the Pine Lake campground, expanding activities for kids and guided tours. Jaque hopes to draw local people in during the winter and said the park shouldn't just be of interest to people who live elsewhere.

Promoting the area comes naturally to the Fort Smith native. After studying nature tourism and society and completing her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Calgary in 2005, Jaque wanted to return to her hometown.

She wasn't sure if she'd be able to find a job in her field, but an internship as Fort Smith's tourism co-ordinator was the ticket home Jaque was looking for. She also worked for the territorial government in tourism before joining Parks Canada's team full time in April, 2008.

Having spent a year in Venezuela on exchange as a high school student and living in Alberta during university, Jaque has lived in larger centres but it was more than family ties that brought her home.

"What's really exciting to me is the prospect of being able to help this area develop economically," she said.

"It's definitely not a sacrifice. I want to be here."