Yukon tourism operators have high hopes for 2015

There was a spirit of optimism in Dawson City this past weekend as tourism operators looked ahead to summer. More than 80 delegates from across the territory were in the Klondike for the Tourism Industry Association's annual spring conference.  

Summer is still weeks away, but some tourism operators are already confident this will be a good year. Many hotels are reporting more bookings than last year. They cite several possible reasons - low gas prices and a strong U.S. dollar chief among them.

"With some people it may include some kind of looking at the dollar and the value and exchange rate," says Phil Timpany who owns Nakina Adventures, a fishing and wildlife viewing outfitter. But Timpany thinks it's also important to consider what Yukon offers visitors.

"It's the product," he says.

Timpany says his lodge is already 80 per cent booked for the coming season, and some guests are reserving for 2017.

Blake Rogers, executive director of the TIA, is also optimistic about this summer. He believes a new marketing campaign is creating buzz about Yukon. In February, the Yukon government launched the $500,000 campaign which included buying airtime on 24 network and specialty channels for a some new ads.

"There's a lot of really great uptake and we're hearing about that right now," Rogers says.

The ads created some initial buzz when they were launched — but not the kind the government hoped for. It turned out the new slogan, "We'll Leave a Light on For You" was trademarked by Motel 6. A quick change was made to "Come to My Yukon - We'll Light the Way." 

Numbers down in 2014

Yukon's tourism industry thrives in the summer. The vast majority of visitors arrive between June and August, and most of them are Americans in vehicles.

But last year, numbers were down slightly after a record year in 2013. An estimated 443,000 people visited Yukon in 2014, a 2.2 per cent drop from 2013.  

The drop was most pronounced in the summer months, and was partially offset by an increase in visitors in the off-season between October and April.

A report from Tourism Yukon also found the number of American tourists had dropped off slightly in 2014, but there were larger numbers from Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The report also found significantly more people had arrived in Yukon by air, rather than road, in 2014.

Tourism is one of Yukon's main industries, and Rogers says the territory must work to keep its numbers up. He says cuts to the Canadian Tourism Commission's marketing budget mean the territory must build up its own brand identity.

"It's up to the Yukon to push things a bit further that way," he says. "I think the more awareness that gets out there about what the Yukon has to offer, I think we're going to see a lot more fruit."