NWT Tourism talks evolution
Organization shifts to sell tourism with narrative; Yk tour company wins award
Karen K. Ho
Northern News Services
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
During last week's NWT Tourism conference and annual general meeting, the organization rolled out Spectacular Northwest Territories, Spectacular Stories, highlighting narratives filmed by celebrities including Chinese supermodel Godfrey Gao and how social media has become increasingly important in marketing and promotion.
Twila MacLeod, right, of Edmonton-based taiko group Booming Tree, performs alongside a member of a Yellowknife Japanese drumming group, Skyfire, at the NWT Tourism's gala dinner and awards ceremony during the conclusion of the organization's conference and annual general meeting on Thursday. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo |
The series of seminars took place from Nov. 3 to Thursday at the Explorer Hotel.
The changing market was also a topic of discussion. There has been a rapid growth in aurora visits but that the number of Japanese visitors is falling, said presenter Richard Zieba.
"This could be due to an aging Japanese population, changing consumer behaviour or airline capacity," said the director of tourism for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. "The number of seats of available could be creating a bottleneck."
Zieba said the territory's tourism market was diversifying to rapidly include Chinese, Hong Kong Taiwanese, domestic and Europeans tourists from what had previously been a focus on Japanese tourism.
"While the Chinese economy is slowing, consumer spending is rising," he said.
Finally, NWT Tourism executive director Cathie Bolstad said that her organization had recently met with the airlines and had discussions about increasing the number and frequency of routes to Yellowknife to help increase capacity.
"We see tremendous growth for 2015," she said.
On Thursday, the final night of the conference, Yellowknife Tours won the operator of the year award during the gala dinner and awards ceremony.
Master of ceremonies Loren McGinnis said the company, led by CK Law, his wife Verda Law and his daughter Angela Law, had demonstrated all-around excellence and modelled best practices in the industry.
For a conference that had an entire day devoted to how tourism companies in the territory could better welcome and accommodate Chinese tourists in the future, Yellowknife Tours was cited as a successful example.
Conference attendees heard that in five years, Yellowknife Tours grew its business from 100 guests in the first year of operation and expects 3,000 visitors from China in 2015.
McGinnis pointed out the company's ability to cater to Chinese tourists in both Mandarin and Cantonese.
"Yellowknife Tours represents Northern culture and products in a way that makes all of their partners across the NWT proud," he said.
"They are always willing to be a part of special initiatives, and are an important partner to NWT Tourism."
In addition to being invited on trade missions to China three times to represent the territory's tour industry, McGinnis said this past summer, Yellowknife Tours cut short a much-needed holiday to provide ground logistical support for Gao's trip to the territory.
In a video presentation, Angela tearfully spoke about how rewarding her family's work is despite the long days and sleep-deprived nights.
Clutching the award, she expressed her gratitude at Yellowknife Tours being recognized, and how seeing the first-time aurora viewers' reactions to Northern lights made everything worth it.
