As the snow disappears and the wind begins to lose its bite, excitement is building for camping in the Northwest Territories (NWT); a fact demonstrated by explosive opening-day reservation numbers compiled last week.
To improve service, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment’s Tourism and Parks division staggered the launch of its 2016 online reservations over two days April 7th and 8th.
The results?
There were a grand total of 796 transactions resulting in 1062 reservations in two days. This amounted to over $138 thousand in spending on reservations for campgrounds — over $15 thousand more than last year.
Reservations were recorded through the NWT’s parks system with nights secured in 16 different campgrounds. Yellowknife’s three campgrounds were, of course, well-represented in the total bookings, but Lady Evelyn Falls, Fort Providence and Hay River campgrounds also proved to be popular destinations.
Statistics showed traffic from a variety of national and international jurisdictions. In fact, only about 30% of visitors to the site were from Yellowknife.
The best-represented international location was San Francisco, USA — a testament to the success of advertising targeted in this region — a promising sign for tourism in the NWT.
With ice breakup and warm weather just a few short weeks away, it is exciting to feel the buzz building around our spectacular parks and campgrounds. Now, if we can just find a way to deal with that other buzz…