Tourism numbers skyrocket
Number of winter visitors nearly doubles with overseas promotion of Northern lights
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's tourism industry saw a huge spike this winter with more than 6,000 additional people coming through the city than last year.
Several tourists from Taiwan explore the snow castle March 18. This includes Jason Hsu, left, Eric Chen, Calvin Wong, Tina Chen, Jessica Lin and Olivia Hsu. The city saw more than 14,000 tourists make their way through the city this winter. - NNSL file photo |
The main draw is the aurora, said Tracy Therrien, executive director of the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre. The dancing lights are of particular interest to visitors from China and Japan - especially during the Chinese New Year, which brings in record-breaking numbers of people. Together, there were more than 3,500 tourists from those countries alone.
Because of this, extensive marketing has been done overseas and Yellowknife is regularly given the top spot over other Arctic countries such as Iceland, Finland and Norway, she said.
"We have the most clear nights compared to other destinations ... we had quite a few groups this year who tried Iceland and didn't succeed in seeing the aurora," she said. "It's also less expensive to come to Yellowknife than it is to go to Europe."
The visitors centre tracked approximately 14,300 tourists who came through the centre between December 2014 and March of this year, up from 8,400 during the same period the previous year.
With the aurora season starting as early as August and lasting well into April, the city's hotels have been inundated with eager viewers. Mayor Mark Heyck said this is an issue the city can no longer ignore - particularly as numbers continue to rise.
"The market needs to catch up with the demand that's out there. Obviously we have a slightly higher-than-average occupancy rate at our hotels," he said, adding plans are now in the works to address the issue.
"There is the potential development of a hotel just as you enter the city and the Explorer is looking at future expansion plans."
There has also been a call for a conference centre in the city which would attract business owners, entrepreneurs and other people who might not normally come North but Heyck said the likelihood of one being built is slim.
"Typically conference centres are money-losers. You do it typically for the spinoff benefits," he said.
"A conference centre is a major undertaking. It might be something we could undertake in the future but there are no definite plans to look at it right now."
NWT Tourism executive director Cathie Bolstad said the city is moving toward a more tourism-based economy and away from its industrial roots as a mining centre.
She adds tourism has the power to generate interest in the city.
"The North is always going to be a great place to live and I think tourism is a huge opportunity to showcase this place to people," she said.
"The businesses (here) have a tremendous opportunity to grow with the tourism that's coming."
Going forward the goal is to promote Yellowknife and the territory all year with a push to generate interest in the summer festivals and fishing opportunities.
But Bolstad doesn't see fascination in the aurora slowing down anytime soon.
"Beautiful, natural phenomena are things that humans chase throughout their lives, whether it's the most beautiful waterfalls or most beautiful skies," she said.
"It's something that makes people feel alive."
