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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
From having every single hotel room booked for the Canadian Medical Association's conference in Yellowknife this past summer, to the return of the aurora viewing tourist season now underway, it has been a busy start for the new general manager of The Explorer Hotel.

Jamie Bolduc joined the downtown hotel last May and, six months into the job, he sees room for the long-standing business to grow its tourism clientele, mining industry clientele, plus overseas and domestic business clientele, he said.

"We're firing on all cylinders and things are going well," Bolduc said. "It's a very different business up here. There are opportunities for all of our hotels to grow, our approaches just have to be unique.

"We always have to have our door open, we always have to be thinking creative, we have to identify things that the customer needs and wants."

In addition to drawing more clients from the mining industry, overseas, and from Edmonton, Calgary, and other Canadian centres, the Explorer is also continuing to cater to the Yellowknife crowd with Tuesday curry-themed lunches and other feature cuisine dinners under Bolduc.

While some travelling motorcyclists recently complained about their stay at the hotel following a property damage incident in the parking lot last summer, loitering, homeless people, uninvited guests and other downtown core issues are not a major problem at the Explorer, Bolduc said.

"That's an obvious sign of Yellowknife but at the same time, a customer that's not a customer of ours today can be a customer of ours tomorrow," Bolduc said. "You have to take the good with the bad."

While hotel prices are higher in the North, occupancy rates are well distributed throughout the year, Bolduc said, and customers are willing to pay for the experience.

"The more somebody pays for something, the more they expect," he said. "In the hotel industry, people don't mind paying the price provided that the experience is there."

Bolduc grew up on Vancouver Island and started his hospitality career while working at resorts and hotels as a university student in Nova Scotia.

Working his way up to management positions, Bolduc got experience at every rung, including washing dishes and housekeeping.

"I've pretty much done everything in the hotel," he said.

Most recently, Bolduc worked at Four Points by Sheraton Halifax, Holiday Inn Select Halifax Centre, and as general manager at Inverary Resort and Spa at Baddeck, N.S., on Cape Breton.

He has signed a three-year contract at Explorer and is "in it for the long haul," he said. "So far so good."

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