HAY RIVER (March 27, 2015) – Raising awareness of the economic and social benefits of community-based tourism was the focus of a two-day Regional Tourism Stakeholder Conference last week in Hay River.

Over 30 community government representatives and 10 tourism operators from the South Slave and Dehcho Regions attended the conference. The event was hosted by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) and Northwest Territories Tourism (NWTT) and was supported by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor).

“In the 2013/2014 fiscal year we saw visitor numbers increase by 20 percent,”said ITI Minister David Ramsay. “Encouraging and supporting community-based tourism initiatives will help to create opportunities for NWT residents and businesses, and provide more options and activities for travellers to experience.”

“The conference enabled participants to provide us with input into the development of our five year marketing strategy and into our work now underway to refresh the Spectacular NWT brand,” said Cathie Bolstad, Executive Director of NWT Tourism. “It also gave us an opportunity to take participants through some real recent examples of our partnership with communities, airlines, hotels and tourism operators in an effort to turn community festivals and events into a spectacular NWT experiences and to discuss ways of measuring the success of our collective marketing investments on these partnerships.”

A variety of speakers shared examples of community tourism success stories, marketing activities, and developing tourism packages. Discussions centered on themes of connecting visitors with local people, uncovering home-grown attractions, and involving youth in tourism. Additional workshops have been held in Délįnę, Yellowknife and Inuvik.

Through its development of community-based tourism programs and infrastructure, ITI is working to realize the 17th Assembly’s goal of creating a diversified economy that provides all communities with opportunities and choices.

Media inquiries:
Drew Williams
Manager, Public Affairs and Communications
Industry, Tourism and Investment
Government of the Northwest Territories
Tel: (867) 920-8696
Email: drew_williams@gov.nt.ca