Tourism Series: Building a Foundation for Tourism

News Type: 
Blog Entries

Find our social media handles here.
To see all the challenges so far, click here.

Event coordinators, fishing guides, chefs, travel agents, B&B owners, marketing professionals, and tour guides are just a few of the positions that make up the Northwest Territories’ (NWT) thriving tourism industry. To keep this sector going strong, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) offers programs, services and training to those working in the territory’s tourism industry.

Tourism is thriving in the NWT today. From 2014/15 to 2015/16, the number of travellers to the territory increased from 84,810 to 93,910.  ITI plans to build on this trend to create jobs and investment in the NWT. In fact, one goal of ITI’s Tourism 2020 plan is to increase visitor numbers to over 109,500 people annually by 2021.

Interested in learning more about tourism training, services and programs? Here are five bookmark-worthy opportunities!

  1. Youth Mentorship for Tourism

    • Think a career in tourism might be for you? Test the waters with this 3 – 5 month long program aimed at students and young professionals.

  1. Business Mentorship for Tourism

    • This program is ideal for tourism operators who are less experienced and want to gain valuable skills in business, leadership and networking.

  1. Aboriginal Tourism Champions

    • A new program that supports developing a network of Aboriginal people throughout the NWT with the skills and passion to energize and motivate communities and operators with an interest in Aboriginal cultural tourism.

  1. Northernmost Host

    • This exciting customer service training program is a great opportunity for all employees working the various tourism sectors to learn about new approaches and techniques to help visitors feel welcomed and cared for. This training is available upon request to ITI.

  1. Community Tourism Coordinator Program

    • This program provides funding for organizations to hire community tourism coordinators to develop sustainable, marketable tourism products in small NWT communities. *Program is fully subscribed for 2017/18.