SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Two NWT businesses were honoured recently at NWT Tourism's annual conference and awards banquet.

Al Pace and Lin Ward, owners of the Norman Wells-based Canoe North Adventures, recently won NWT Tourism's Operator of the Year Award. Pictured here is Pace and Ward with their with son, Walt. - photo courtesy of Canoe North Adventures

Lin Ward and Al Pace, operators of the Norman Wells-based Canoe North Adventures, were given the Operator of the Year award during a small ceremony held in Inuvik on Nov. 25.

The couple, who offer summer wilderness canoe and hiking trips, began moving their operations from Whitehorse to Norman Wells in 2000.

But thanks to $380,000 in recent investments – half of it from the GNWT's Tourism Product

Diversification and Marketing Program – the business is really taking off, said Pace.

The money was used to build an all-purpose hospitality centre for adventurers located a stone's throw away from the float base of North-Wright Airways, which uses its float planes to fly Pace and Ward's clients to their destinations.

The clients – who hail mostly from Ontario, where Pace and Ward live in the off-season – can use the centre to lay out their supplies, wash their clothes and make themselves a snack, said Pace.

"It's already having a measurable effect," he said. "It adds and lends credibility to our operation."

This summer, Pace travelled by canoe on Great Bear River from Deline to Tulita.

"Out of that, we've now developed a product where we will fly into Deline with our canoes, spend time at Grey Goose Lodge, and have the community there," said Ward.

Community residents will be invited to promote their arts and crafts and provide cultural displays to visitors.

The idea is to attract more people to the Sahtu region, said Ward.

"A lot of the people that visit the Northwest Territories only venture into that southern part of it, and we're really trying to bring more people to Norman Wells, to the greater Sahtu region."

The kind of cultural immersion Pace and Ward are planning is just the type of experience tourists are looking for, Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investments (ITI), told conference attendees.

“There is a large and growing market of travellers looking for authentic experiences,” the minister noted. “They want to learn something on their trips. They want to know how people once lived, and continue to live, in the destinations they visit.”

Darryl Nilson, owner of Darryl's Shuttle Service in Yellowknife, won NWT Tourism's 2010 Service Excellence Award.

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