NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The latest tourism numbers in the territory are mixed, with business travel up, friends and family visitors up, but many regional airports reporting far fewer passengers.

The Northern Lights keep watch over campers during the annual Colville Lake community caribou hunt in 2014. While the Northern Lights continue to draw visitors to the territory, GNWT officials say hunting restrictions are why numbers for hunting visitors aren't expected to grow for the next few years. - photo courtesy of Andrew Galbraith

While Yellowknife reported growth in business travel and tourists from Asian countries such as China and Japan, other places such as Inuvik Fort Smith and the Sahtu noted major declines in the number of airport passengers.

In Inuvik, the number of airport passengers fell from 78,958 in 2013 to 71,790 in 2014, a drop of 7,168 or 9.1 per cent. In the Sahtu region, the number of airport passengers fell from 88,128 in 2013 to 71,827 in 2014, a drop of 16,301 or 18.5 per cent.

According to ITI's report for the North Slave region, the total number of visitors to the Northern Frontier Visitor's Centre in Yellowknife rose from 23,515 in 2013 to 25,375 in 2014, an increase of 1,860 or 7.9 per cent.

Richard Zieba, the GNWT director of tourism and parks, said the 54.4 per cent increase in business travellers in Yellowknife from 2012-2013 to 2013-2014 was attributed to construction projects.

"Engineers coming up, crews coming to build things and establishing of the convention bureau in 2014-2015 probably is going to help sustain that growth," he said.

While the number of fishing visitors in Yellowknife still haven't fully caught up to the levels in 2011-2012, Zieba said that lodge visitations are declining across Canada, not just in the NWT.

"It's a national issues," he said. "People are travelling differently."

As a result, NWT Tourism's marketing campaign for the following year was focused on how to improve these numbers through promotions specifically about angling.

"Anecdotal evidence suggests this year that numbers are up at some of the lodges across the territory," Zieba said. "We may be seeing a reaction to the low Canadian dollar, seeing more U.S. travellers or getting more Canadians staying in Canada."

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has also seen tremendous growth from 7,000 Chinese travellers in the last nine to 12 months. Zieba said five years ago there were only about 100 Chinese visitors.

NWT Tourism executive director Cathie Bolstad said that numbers she's received from the visitor's centre comparing the seven month period between December 2013 and July 2014 to December 2014 and July of this year definitely show this rapid increase.

"In the Chinese market, so China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and people identifying themselves as Asian, we're seeing 123 per cent growth," she said.

"We're working with NWT Tourism to do a workshop on how to host Chinese visitors at their conference and AGM in early November," Zieba said. "We're putting some resources into skills development and training around the Chinese market because we believe it's going to continue to grow."

When it comes to Japanese tourists, Zieba said the number doubled between the 2012-2013 season and 2013-2014 season to approximately 15,000 to 18,000.

Bolstad said there was also 66 per cent yearly growth in the number of Japanese tourists going to the Yellowknife visitor's centre in the last nine to 12 months.

"Those are current, right-now numbers," she said.

When it comes to challenges, Zieba said the main ones were hotel accommodation capacity, the high price of airfares and the availability of travel packages that were market ready.

Tourism Stats:

Other notable points from the GNWT's Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment latest regional tourism reports include:

• The number of visitors to Nahanni dropped for the second year in a row, from 1,033 people in 2011-2012, to 840 in 2012-2013 and 760 for 2013-2014.
• At the three Deh Cho Territorial Parks, Blackstone, Fort Simpson and Sambaa Deh, the number of overnight visitors was relatively flat.
• Monthly passenger volumes at the Sahtu airport dropped significantly in 2014, with almost every month registering double-digit decreases year-over-year, and there were four months where declines were greater than 20 per cent.
• The total number of passengers fell from 92,051 in 2012, an average of 7,670 per month, to 71,827 in 2014, or 5,985 per month. This is a decline of 20,224 passengers or 22 per cent.
• In the Beaufort Delta region, the number of tourism operator licences fell from 13 in 2014 to 8 in 2015.
• The number of visitors to the South Slave Territorial Parks - 60th Parallel, Fort Providence, Hay River, Lady Evelyn Falls, Little Buffalo River, Queen Elizabeth and Twin Falls - fell from 8,818 in 2013 to an estimated 7,618 in 2014, an estimated decline of 1,200 people or 13.6 per cent.
• However, the number of walk-in visitors to the 60th Parallel Visitor Information Centre in August and September 2014 rose by 22.6 per cent to 17,096 compared to 2013's total of 13,943.
• According to Parks Canada, the number of attendees at Wood Buffalo park also jumped higher from 1,790 in 2012-2013 to 3,364 in 2013-2014.
• In the North Slave Region, the total number of overnight visitors at the three parks - Fred Henne, Prelude Lake and Reid Lake - fell from 13,364 in 2013 to 12,978 in 2014. However,. the average length of stay rose from 3.18 days in 2013 to 4.13 days in 2014.

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