As aurora season begins in the Northwest Territories, some tourists have been heading north to view the dazzling displays of lights as the tourism industry slowly begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bobby Drygeese owns and operates B. Dene Adventures, which offers aurora viewing and cultural tours that teach about Yellowknives Dene First Nation traditions in Dettah, NWT. He says they have had some guests from elsewhere in Canada this year, but not as many as before the pandemic.
“It has been really slow, but it has been picking up and a lot of people are interested in what we’re doing,” he said.
The Discovery Inn in Yellowknife highlights aurora as one of the local attractions.
Manager Edward Tse said before the pandemic, roughly 70% of hotel guests came from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China. Now that out-of-territory travellers are returning to the NWT, he said about 50 to 60% of bookings are visitors from elsewhere in Canada and the United States.
“Right now, it’s still at the beginning stage of recovery,” he said.
The NWT boasts some of the best and brightest aurora in the world, attracting thousands of domestic and international visitors during aurora season each year, which stretches from roughly mid-August to April.
Before the pandemic, tourism spending in the NWT totalled nearly $295 million in 2019-20, with 117,620 people visiting the territory, largely from elsewhere in Canada. Almost a third of those travellers came to see the aurora, spending nearly $60 million.
COVID-19 public health restrictions introduced in late March 2020 had a profound impact on tourism in the territory. Leisure travel was prohibited until March 2022, while remote tourism operators like fly-in lodges were allowed to apply to host guests from outside the territory beginning in April 2021. All public health measures in the NWT were lifted in April 2022.
Ed Romanowski, president of Nunastar Properties Inc. which owns The Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife, said the leisure travel market “isn’t what keeps the lights on” for airlines and large hotels.
“These are the markets that take a lot longer to organize and to build confidence in longer distance travel,” he said, adding it generally takes two to three years for international markets to come back.
Romanowski said other types of travel to the territory have recovered more quickly such as business and government travel, airline crews staying overnight, inter-territorial travel, and people visiting friends and family.
“We’ve had a very, very busy summer and early fall. There was a lot of pent-up demand,” he said, adding it hasn’t yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Still, the Northern Lights remain a bucket list experience for many travellers and NWT is ideally situated to serve as Yellowknife sits directly under the Auroral Oval, a concentrated area for the most intense Aurora activity anywhere on Earth.
“This means travellers get a front row seat to the dancing light show unlike anywhere else. The vibrant colours of the dancing Aurora literally fill the crystal-clear open skies,” says NWT Tourism, which adds, “With low humidity and light pollution, these mesmerizing light performances are brighter and last longer than any other area in the world. Plus, your chances are greater for catching the Aurora since the NWT experiences 240 viewing nights a year.
Best viewing times are August to the end of September and mid-November to April.
Besides being awe-inspiring, the Aurora are believed to offer a deeper connection in the Indigenous community.
“I was told that when the Aurora’s dancing is very strong and moving very fast, those are the spirits of the people that just passed on recently,” says Joe Bailey, Indigenous owner of North Star Adventures. “They’re telling you that they’re OK now, that there’s no need to be sad, and that, one day, we will meet again.”
For those who want a taste of the Northern Lights the Aurora Live Max Cam in Yellowknife provides live streaming. Check it out auroamax.com