'Numbers have been going up': Dawson City sees busy summer tourist season

Business was booming this summer in Dawson City, Yukon, according to the Klondike Visitors Association.

The tourism organization recently held its annual fall roundup. Paul Robitaille, a manager at the Klondike Visitors Association, says they don't track hard numbers, but the summer was busy.

"The message that we got from our corporate members and the industry at large is visitation to Dawson is very good," Robitaille said.

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"There's a lot of factors that are helping that, you know the reality TV shows, the marketing dollars that were sunk into TV ads this year, you know the fact that we had great weather."

At the Alchemy Cafe, owner Florian Boulais says it was a busy summer, and it was difficult to keep up with staffing needs.

"Challenging to find staff that is motivated and reliable," Boulais said.

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Robitaille hopes that next year there could be an exit survey for tourists. He said it's been a few years since the Yukon government has done a comprehensive study of tourists.

"People thought that this year was as good as last year and that generally the numbers have been going up fairly incrementally the last five years."

He added that there's always room for improvement.

"At our fall round up the biggest complaints were, we need to improve signage, we need to improve outhouses," Robitaille said.

"If that's the biggest problem we have then things are good in terms of tourism in the Klondike."