June 16, 2020

Northwest Territories (NWT) Parks draw visitors from around the world each year – in fact, in 2019 we welcomed 35,249 overnight campers to our spectacular parks.

With the first official weekend of camping in the books, the popularity and use of NWT parks and campgrounds has not waned. Even with border restrictions in place that will prevent leisure visitors from visiting the NWT, 3036 reservations are already in the books as NWT residents from Inuvik to Fort Simpson make plans to get out and enjoy at least one of our spectacular parks.    

The online reservation system for campgrounds opened over 2 days last week. Here’s a breakdown by the numbers:

Breaking Records – Again

It was yet another year of increases for the opening event.

Day 1 bookings resulted in a whopping 1506 reservations at all parks other than Fred Henne. That’s a 66% increase over 2019’s 909 reservations, which was a new record in itself.

Day 2 featured the opening of the reservation system for Fred Henne Territorial Park and 862 reservations were made by the end of the day.

Overall, reservations reached 2588 by close of offices on June 11. That’s a 59% increase over last year’s numbers.

Unprecedented Surge in Website Demand

There were over 6200 visits to the NWT Parks campground reservation portal. During that same period, there were more than 90,000 page views generated on the NWT Parks site.

To encourage and reward “staycationing” and the recommended use of the GNWT’s online campground reservation system, the Department of Industry Tourism and Investment is offering a free night stay for every five constitutive camping nights booked on line.

Read more about the coupon here 

1,192 coupons were mailed out to happy NWT campers following the first two days of bookings.