|
 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
Aurora tourism soars, fishing sinks Northern lights draw record number of visitors as fishing tourism continues downward trend
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 2, 2013
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The NWT welcomed a record number of aurora viewers to the territory this past tourist season, while the number of sport and recreational fishers heading North continued an almost decade-long decline.
According to new tourism estimates released by NWT Tourism last week, 15,700 aurora viewers travelled to the NWT from across Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, Britain, Germany, Switzerland and other countries, up 112 per cent from 7,400 aurora viewers from the previous season.
Aurora viewing vs. fishing in the NWT
The NWT welcomed a record number of aurora viewers to the territory this past tourist season, while the number of sport and recreational fishers heading North continued an almost decade-long decline. - NNSL illustration
|
"That number smashes our previous record, which was pre-Sept. 11 (2001), of approximately 12,000 aurora viewers," said Brian Desjardins, executive director of NWT Tourism.
Aurora viewer numbers plummeted following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City nearly 12 years ago, but have been on a gradual increase since 2009.
"Overall, we've seen a 17 per cent increase in visitors from about 65,000 to 75,000 visitors and overall we've seen an increase from the year previous on visitor spending, from approximately $100 million to $106 million," he said.
Most other categories of visitors also recorded increases, such as general touring, up 10 per cent to 14,800 visitors. Hunting also saw an increase, up four per cent to 500 visitors. Outdoor adventurists were up by four per cent to 2,400. Finally, the numbers of those visiting friends and relatives was up 17 per cent to 13,800. Business travel stayed roughly the same at 24,100.
However, fishing tourism continued to dive, dropping 15 per cent to 4,000.
"That is obviously very concerning to us," Desjardins said.
In response, NWT Tourism is putting out a request for proposals to conduct an audit of the industry, which will explore the products and services of the territory's lodges and fishing operators to see what's been successful and what hasn't been. An audit of competitors in the north of the provinces will also be included in the analysis and past marketing activities of NWT Tourism and marketing by the competition will be reviewed, as well.
A profile of tourists who have already fished in the NWT will be assembled from interviews in which they will be asked why they chose the NWT over other locales.
"All of that research is going to lead to phase two, which will be taking that information and helping us rebrand our fishing sector so that when we do our niche marketing and various magazines and publications, (it will provide an answer to) what message are we going to send to them to convince them to come to the NWT to fish," Desjardins said. "It will give us, ultimately, a strategy."
Desjardins said the research is scheduled to be complete by Christmas, with focus group sessions planned for early in the new year.
A new marketing campaign will be released by next spring, prior to next year's fishing season, he said.
More than in past years, NWT Tourism is also hosting media-familiarization tours focused on the fishing sector, in which fishing writers and broadcasters are brought up for visits to NWT lodges, and travel-trade familiarization tours, in which operators come North to experience fishing in the territory and establish relationships with NWT lodges so when they return south they can further sell fishing packages to customers.
Marketing to aurora viewers around the world will also continue to grow in the coming year, Desjardins said.
NWT Tourism received a three-year influx of $1.2 million from CanNor in 2012 to expand current activities in Japan and create new promotional inroads in China and South Korea.
"We're expanding in those markets and we're expanding in Europe, primarily Germany and Switzerland," Desjardins said. "And, of course, 78 per cent of our visitors come from Canada, so we're going to do more things in North America."
|
