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IQALUIT
The territorial government spent more than $200,000 to attract CTV's Canada AM in Iqaluit this summer.

CTV's Canada AM host Jeff Hutcheson learns how to high kick from Thomas Anguti Johnston and Johnny Issaluk (not visible) during the show's live broadcast June 10 in Iqaluit. Hutcheson's kick was about 3' off the ground. Johnston later kicked the ball at 7'2". - NNSL file photo

The television morning news program broadcast live from the territorial capital on July 9 and 10. Nunavut Tourism, which worked to bring the program to Iqaluit, received $233,000 from the Nunavut Economic Foundation Fund to help offset the costs. It originally asked for a higher amount, and the Department of Economic Development and Transportation decided to give the money only after the event, said department deputy minister Robert Long.

"The estimated amount to begin with was, I believe, around $300,000 and the actual event, the cost was $233,000. So, it dropped a bit," he said.

The morning program was a great opportunity to showcase Nunavut to the rest of Canada, show the lifestyle of its residents, promote culture, industry and arts, he said.

"Why did we do that? We want to encourage visitors. We want to encourage tourism. We want people to purchase our arts and our other products," said Long. "If we had gone out and paid for this type of advertising, it would have had a price tag estimated at around $1 million for what we got. Considering that, we got, really, four times the value."

Canada AM's visit had an impact both at the territorial government and with Nunavut Tourism, according to their respective officials.

The website for the latter saw five times the hits it would normally get on July 9 and 10, explained Colleen Dupuis, chief executive officer at Nunavut Tourism. She said since then, the website has twice the monthly average of visitors.

"The promotional opportunity we had and the reaction we're still getting is huge. We could never afford to buy that kind of television time," she said. "It was a great exposure for Nunavut as a whole – not just tourism."

Increased visits to the Government of Nunavut website can be credited to the Canada AM's visit, said Long. He explained the territory's website received 1,000 hits a day during the two-day event, higher than the average 200 hits daily. In September, the website got around 10,000 hits when it would typically get 5,000, said Long.

"We give most of the credit for that because no other significant marketing initiative was going on in this period of time," said Long. "We have to say, we've got five times the hits on the website from that marketing process. We can only assume that there will be increased tourism sales and other sales of product as a result."

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