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Pass with flying colours Arviat's first cruise ship visit in more than a decade goes smoothly
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 18, 2013
ARVIAT
Arviat welcomed its first cruise ship in more than a decade this past month.
A group of tourists head back to their cruise ship, the Silver Explorer, on a Zodiak after their visit to Arviat this past month. - photo courtesy of Olivia Tagalik |
The Silver Explorer paid a visit to the community through the efforts of the Arviat Community Ecotourism (ACE) initiative.
The vessel made one stop in Arviat on a voyage that originated in Reykjavik, Iceland, and then came back to the community while on its way to Greenland from Churchill, Man.
Tourism co-ordinator Olivia Tagalik said almost 200 tourists visited Arviat between the two stops.
She said the visits were a learning experience and, overall, things went very well for ACE.
"The people with the cruise ship were really impressed with the community, especially considering we haven't had any here for so long," said Tagalik.
"Everyone was very welcoming and accommodating to the tourists.
"They visited with elders while here, got to see a traditional caribou skin tanning, and learned about all the different tools Inuit used to survive on the land.
"They also got to meet carvers, did a little shopping and went to our Visitor's Centre to learn about the history of Arviat."
The reason for developing a tourism industry is to improve the local economy.
And, while the visitors definitely proved to be a benefit to the community, the ACE group learned from the coming-and-going aspect, as well.
Tagalik said the community fared far better economically with the visitors when the ship was near the end of its voyage, compared to the visitors who were just starting out on their cruise.
She said it was interesting to see both sides of the scenario with the visitors from the two trips.
"From what we saw, if the visitors are near the end of their cruise they're really willing to buy stuff, but, if they're at the beginning, they figure they still have lots of time.
"But, an economic boost to the community was definitely seen here from their visits."
Tagalik said ACE's cultural performers were pretty excited about the visits.
She said they didn't get to perform during the first stop because only about half the tourists group came ashore due to high winds.
"On the second cruise-ship day, the performers actually got to perform on the ship itself.
"That was a very nice thing for the company to do.
"They gave us a little tour of the ship, and we did a cultural performance, plus a demonstration of Inuit games.
"The visitors were quite intrigued by the performers and the different things they were doing, so they had
a lot of questions.
"It was nice to have everyone gathered together to answer those questions."
Word of mouth can be a powerful ally when trying to attract visitors.
And, Tagalik's confident the community made a strong impression on the tourists.
She said she's hopeful the visitors will strongly recommend Arviat to their friends and every fellow traveller they know.
"I know we put on a
good show for them.
"So, I hope they spread the word that Arviat's the place to see."
ACE still has one more major attraction to go in 2013, when it hosts its two polar bear tours from Oct. 21 to 25 and Nov. 4 to 8.
Tagalik said ACE now has a polar bear fence and cabin in place for visiting wildlife lovers.
She said the cabin features a viewing platform, and ACE employees are looking forward to putting it into action for the first time.
"We just had it done this past year, so it's pretty exciting to be getting ready to test it out in October and see how it goes.
"The viewing area is two stories high - about 10 feet, or so, off of the ground - and you can sit four people on it at a time.
"You can see quite a ways from up on the viewing platform, actually, considering how flat Arviat is."
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