NWT - Chances are, if you're a business traveller, you've been in this boat:

This spring, NWT Tourism will launch the NWT Business Mobile site, a website specifically designed for mobile devices and business travellers who suddenly find themselves with time to kill – and money to spend. - photo courtesy of Outcrop Communications

You're in a strange town on business. Your meeting just got out and you have got five hours to kill – and no idea how to do it. What to do?

NWT Tourism has an answer: check your mobile device.

This spring, the GNWT-funded tourism marketer will launch the NWT Business Mobile site, a streamlined, touch-friendly version of its flagship Spectacular NWT website.

"It's aimed at the business traveller," said Julie Warnock, communications coordinator for NWT Tourism.

"When they come into the communities (for) meetings and conventions, they can actually find some tourism activities when they're here. It's going to have buzz lists that (suggest) itineraries for visitors who might only have an afternoon or an evening."

One of NWT Tourism's three twitter feeds, NWT Business, will post opportunities that come up on the fly.

"If an operator finds out that they're able to take eight people out but they've got only six tourists booked, they can put those last two (seats) out there on Twitter to say, 'Hey! Special deal!'"

While the number of business travellers has dropped in recent years due to the economic slowdown, they still account for a considerable part of the NWT's total visitors – over 26,000 during the 2009-10 fiscal year, according to NWT Tourism.

In Yellowknife, 50 per cent of travellers hail from the business community.

"If a person comes to the NWT and does not experience a tourism activity, they'll go away with a negative impression," said Warnock. "Even if they experienced only one tourism-related activity, their feeling about what the NWT has to offer is so much greater."

Under the plan, restaurants, hotel lobbies and airports will be peppered with advertising wheels touting tourism products specific to each town or region. The wheels will feature QR (quick response) codes that visitors can scan with their phones, taking them directly to the operator's site.

"A lot of times when people are reading a newspaper or a magazine, they're not directly in front of a computer, so it's a lot easier to put in a QR code there so that, if they want more information about that particular product, they simply scan the QR code and, boom, they're there on the mobile," said Doug Johnston, an account director with Outcrop Communications in Yellowknife, which is designing the mobile site for NWT Tourism.

"It's really about targeting people where they are."

NWT Tourism will test launch the site in late March with information on Yellowknife only. Once it examines patterns among those who browsed the site, it will add further information on Norman Wells, Inuvik, Hay River and Fort Simpson..

Johnston said tourism operators in communities outside Yellowknife particularly stand to benefit from the site.

"A lot of people go out to these small communities and they don't think there's much to do, and we sort of want to dispel that message and say, 'Hey, there is a lot of coll stuff to do. You just haven't bothered thinking about it.'"

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