Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

IQALUIT
Charly the Char made a cheerful debut at the 2012 Iqaluit Santa Claus parade on Dec. 8.

Courtney Dunphy, left, walks alongside Charly the Char, played by Emilia Nevin, during the Iqaluit Santa Claus parade. Both Dunphy and Nevin are information counsellors at the Unikkaarvik Visitor Centre. - Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL

The brightly coloured mascot, whose brilliant pink stomach indicates she's a spawning female, will be doing her part to promote Nunavut and it's fantastic recreational sport fishing opportunities to tourists both in the North and down South.

"Sport fishing in Nunavut, it has always been one of the cornerstones of tourism in Nunavut," said Colleen Dupuis, chief executive officer for Nunavut Tourism. "For a number of years in the early 2000s it was a bit neglected and the last couple of years we've worked with the Department of Environment to start promoting it more. We've certainly seen an increase."

One of the ways Nunavut Tourism hopes to promote sport fishing is through Charly. The extra-large char will attend travel shows in the south, local trade shows, fishing derbies and on appear on social media outlets such as Youtube and Facebook.

Nuanvut already makes use of a Youtube channel where an underwater video of Sylvia Grinnell River in Iqaluit shows just how much char abound in the waters.

A 2011 Visitor's Exit Survey identified middle-aged men in Nunavut on business as the most common visitor to the territory.

Dupuis said Nunavut Tourism plans on making recreational sport fishing more of an option for those who travel to the territory on business and one of the ways to do that is to improve the process for obtaining a fishing licence.

"One of the comments that we've heard from some of the people (who visit) here is .. when they're here on business for the weekend and they want to go out fishing and they're having trouble getting a fishing licence because an office is closed or whatever," said Dupuis.

"We are looking for a way to make that simple so people .. can take advantage of down time."

Recreational sport fishing is also a particularly valuable sector of tourism when it comes to long-stay leisure trips for two reasons, Dupuis said.

The first reason is that few southern operators, which means the majority of money spent on fishing lodge packages or individual services stays in Nunavut.

The second reason is that world-class trips for avid anglers tend to be unaffected by economic changes and the same is true with other "consumptive tourism" sectors, such as hunting.

The trick is getting the word out that your destination is the place to be, said Dupuis.

"Most attractions and activities in Nunavut are somehow tied to the environment, like the wilderness, wild animals, and culture," said Dupuis.

"It is certainly the physical geography of Nunavut and the culture that are the main attractions."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.