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NUNAVUT
It's likely little surprise that most visitors to Nunavut are middle-aged Canadian men who are here for business.

Nunavut Tourism chief executive officer Colleen Dupuis said Oct. 22 that tourism to Nunavut is up since 2008, and travellers are spending more. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

But regardless of the visitor profile, the bottom line shows tourism is up, and so is revenue for businesses in Nunavut that rely on those visitors, the 2011 Nunavut Tourism exit survey shows.

"The typical visitor to Nunavut remains male (70 per cent), 40 to 65 years old (51 per cent), Canadian (90 per cent), with an annual income of $50,000 to $150,000 a year (63 per cent)," chief executive officer Colleen Dupuis said Oct. 22. Another 25 per cent of visitors make more than $150,000.

"Ninety-one per cent of our visitors are domestic, with the US at five per cent, and others, mostly European, at four per cent," Dupuis said. "The US economy is a factor in the reduction in US visitors, as well as an increase in business travellers that are mostly from Canada. Twenty-nine per cent of the travellers were from Ontario."

The numbers come as the result of 1,034 surveys performed by Nunavut Tourism staff working at the three regional airports from May to September 2011, which gave a more complete picture than previous surveys that would collect data on a selection of days over the months of July and August.

In 2011, visitors spent, on average, $2,663 per trip, half of that going to transportation. At $40 million, tourism revenue was up from the 2008 survey, which registered revenues of $32 million, Dupuis said. Much of the revenue comes from business travellers, who consisted 57 per cent of all visitors, but 64 per cent of spending.

The numbers include Nunavummiut travelling within the territory. The survey found 11.3 per cent of travellers were from Nunavut.

"This shows us that we travel here," Dupuis said. "We spend dollars within the territory, and not all of this was business travel."

Visitors to the Kitikmeot region were most satisfied, with 95 per cent rating their visit as good or excellent, although most visitors were leisure travellers who stayed a week or more. That compares with 92 per cent of visitors to the Kivalliq and 86 per cent of those visiting the Qikiqtaaluk region, both of which had more business visitors who stayed less than a week.

That's not to say everything is perfect. Travellers want to see lower costs, better airports, better access to products and services, and more access to the back country, Dupuis said.

"The biggest barriers to tourism for us would be the cost of airfare and freight," said Graham Dickson, president of Arctic Kingdom, which caters to leisure travellers. "Freight influences the cost of shipping camps and supplies and deploying them. The hotels and restaurants, especially in smaller communities, need to be upgraded, but most of the travellers we bring are specifically coming to go out on the land."

When they take part in dog sledding, viewing Northern lights, building iglus, sampling country food, his mostly international clients get an experience that competes with the best safaris in Africa, Dickson said.

"Wildlife is always key, and geography," he said. "We work with local outfitters and guides so you have the best local knowledge and traditional skills."

Efforts to promote tourism in Nunavut - including a new website and two days hosting CTV's Canada AM in July - will take some time to see results, but an internal survey shows 2012 was a good season, Dupuis said. Travel is up 22 per cent in the Qikiqtaaluk region, nine per cent in the Kitikmeot, and eight per cent in the Kivalliq, she said.

"We definitely have seen tourism recovering," Dickson said. "The last two years before this were down quite significantly, and 2012 has been up quite a lot. And it looks like it's continuing to grow for next year."

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