NWT Tourism Update
We have a few brief updates to share with you today.
GNWT Territorial Park Regulations
The Government of the Northwest Territories is gathering public feedback on proposed amendments to the Territorial Parks Regulations (TPR).
The proposed changes address safety, environmental, administrative, and technical improvements that have been identified in the ongoing operation of NWT parks.
NWT residents have until Sept 9th, 2022 to submit written feedback through the engagement page found here.
GNWT Regional Economic Development Plans
The GNWT is developing a Regional Economic Development Plan (REDP) for each administrative region in the NWT. The REDPs will identify opportunities to grow existing businesses or start new businesses, to help increase economic diversification by supporting growth in the non-extractive sectors of the economy and will support the efforts made by the GNWT to ensure that the economy of the NWT recovers and emerges stronger from the challenges it has faced over recent years.
We encourage our members to participate. It will take you about 15 minutes to complete. The link to the survey is found here and any information you provide will be held confidential and used only for the purposes of informing the regional economic development plans. More information on this initiative can be found here including a Discussion Paper that provides background information.
The Department of ITI is leading this work and through a competitive Request for Proposals process, has engaged Qatalyst Research Group Inc. to assist the government in preparing the plans. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ted Weicker of Qatalyst Research Group (at Ted.Weicker@Qatalyst-Research.ca).
Destination Canada Snapshot
Destination Canada recently released a quarterly snapshot, some of their findings that we wanted to share are as follows:
• Travel to Canada is in demand, with Google search from international markets exceeding 2019 levels.
• Buoyed by hotel occupancy in regions exceeding their 2019 levels and lifts in urban areas closing in on their pre-pandemic performance, average hotel occupancy in June 2022 for Canada stood 1% below its 2019 level.
• Tourism spend progressed to 72% of its 2019 level.
• Domestic air connectivity has improved to 90% of its 2019 level, while international seat capacity to Canada stands at 84%, ten percentage-points above the world average.
Canada’s Tourism Industry is showing strong signs of recovery in the 2nd quarter.
As our summer season winds down, and our fall Aurora season is in full swing, I hope you are all well, if there is anything that we can assist you with, please contact us.
I look forward to seeing you all at the AGM & Conference in Hay River at the end of October, please register if you have not already done so. You can find the link to register here.