Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of ITI in regards to some of our tourist investments and some of our tourism supports. I mentioned in my Member’s statement the Inuvik Sunrise Festival and the support and interest it got from media campaigns and Facebook. I was just looking at the numbers here, but this very creative group in Inuvik used an organization on Facebook and they garnered over 1,800 contest entries and then on the Rogers Media on the radio show they had over 2,600 entries. So, over 4,500 contest entries to get up to Inuvik to welcome back the sun.
I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI, is this in the planning or marketing planning strategy that we can start utilizing social media, but also utilizing some of these radio stations down south such as Rogers and teaming up with them to develop some type of marketing strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Sunrise Festival is an important event in Inuvik and certainly efforts to market it is something that the Department and NWT Tourism is interested in and will continue to be interested in. Last year ITI supported the festival with a $10,000 contribution and also NWT Tourism provided a $20,000 contribution for a total of $30,000. If the Member wants to have a look, I know that number hasn’t been increased, the contribution from ITI, in some time. That’s a discussion that can take place between the Town of Inuvik and our regional office in Inuvik.
As far as marketing the Northwest Territories, festivals are a big part of that, opportunities for people to come here to the Northwest Territories and go to a festival. We just tabled our marketing plan for ‘15-16 in the House, I believe it was last week, and I’d encourage the Member to have a look at that. There are ways to plug those festivals into our marketing efforts both domestically and internationally. Thank you.
In regards to the Sunrise Festival, I know the department really does a great job in promoting our northern lights, and we do see that. It’s pretty evident here in Yellowknife when we see all the tourists here. But like I mentioned in my Member’s statement, there’s no other place that I know of in the world that has a celebration of welcoming back the sun. This is huge and I think that it’s something that we can market as well. Also, the Minister had mentioned in his Minister’s statement before about the Oil and Gas Strategy. We know the economy is slow and that oil and gas activity is not very active at all in the Beaufort-Delta region, so investing in a different type of industry such as tourism.
I’d like to ask the Minister, when he’s going out to promote our northern lights and Destination NWT, would he also promote the welcome back Sunrise Festival equally as the northern lights? Like I said, no other place in the world does something like this.
NWT Tourism obviously is an industry-driven organization that does our marketing. They have representatives from all regions of the Northwest Territories. We do our best, and I’ve mentioned before in the House, on promotional videos having images from across the Northwest Territories. I understand what the Member is saying and we will try to incorporate festivals and, in this case, the Inuvik Sunrise Festival. I know the commercial that they had with orange juice company, I won’t mention the name but they were very successful in showcasing that festival through a commercial. So other efforts like that through social media and things of that nature certainly should be encouraged, and I’d be happy to promote opportunities in Inuvik for the Sunrise Festival on any promotional trip that I have. Thank you.
I think the concept of having a contest to get Southerners up to our regions in the NWT shows that people are interested in coming up to the North. They had over 4,500 entries just from the Facebook site as well as the radio contest. I didn’t get any statistics on how the TV program showed up.
The active group in Inuvik, the Tourism Stakeholder Committee, is also looking at doing something similar for the Aboriginal Day, Summer Solstice, as well as the Great Northern Arts Festival and our annual reindeer crossing. Would the department look at funding or look at supporting contests of a similar nature for other events like that not only in Inuvik but right across the Northwest Territories? All regions are doing really great things. Is this something that he would look at, a contest type of marketing strategy for the Northwest Territories?
Contests are a good way for us to promote what we have here in the Northwest Territories in terms of tourism product. I know when we launched the Aurora Capital of the World in Vancouver there was a trip giveaway. Just recently at NWT Days in Ottawa we had a grand prize for a trip for two to the Northwest Territories. People like to enter contests. They like to have a chance to come to a place they normally wouldn’t get a chance to come to, and certainly the Northwest Territories is a place people want to try to get to.
Incorporating contests is important and we are continuing to work with Inuvik, with the Town of Inuvik, through Destination Inuvik, new promotional materials to better target potential visitors to the Beaufort-Delta, and we will continue to do that, because really, and the Member mentioned, this is a good opportunity for the Town of Inuvik, for the region, and with the highway going to be completing construction here in two years, there is tremendous opportunity in the Beaufort-Delta to get more tourists in there, not only in the winter but in the summer, and we could be looking at campgrounds, service stations and maybe even more restaurants in the region as well.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Minister, how do we promote one of our other big attractions, the Mackenzie River? We can look at possibly providing some kind of package for the Mackenzie River. I’d like to ask the Minister, are we promoting our Mackenzie River expedition?
The quick answer to that is yes. The Mackenzie River is one of the great rivers of the world. It’s in our backyard. It’s really the backbone of the territory, historically, culturally, and we do certainly promote the Mackenzie River.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
