Arviat seeks hotel development partner

The Arviat Qaggiqtiiq performance group

By Deneen Allen
Watermark Hospitality

ARVIAT, NUNAVUT—Gap Adventures, now known as G Adventures, has taken up the new cultural itinerary of the Arviat Community Ecotourism (ACE) Initiative, and it is officially online for the 2012 season. Arviat is an Inuit hamlet located halfway up on the west side of Hudson’s Bay.

But Gap Adventures is not the only tour operator that has incorporated ACE into its travel itineraries.  Frontiers North, Arctic Kingdom and Adventure Canada have all participated in Arviat Community Ecotourism FAM trips in 2011 and account for a number of bookings.

In October, Frontiers North, out of Churchill, Manitoba, brought a group of Australians to experience the new program.

Then, in early November, Arctic Kingdom, out of Toronto, Ontario, is bringing Richard Wiese of the ABC television program Born to Explore and his production company, Seekers Media, to Arviat to film and experience the hospitality of this amazing Inuit community, learn about Inuit culture and get up close and personal with some polar bears.

And later in November, World Wildlife Fund will arrive with another large group brought in by Frontiers North to tour the hamlet of Arviat, meet Elders for tea and storytelling, share traditional foods, take in a special performance of throat singing and drum dancing, meet local artists and carvers, visit a traditional Inuit crafts and sewing centre, get immersed in the local culture, and almost assuredly see polar bears.

The ACE Initiative is comprised of many members of the Arviat community. These creative and passionate Inuit people have made this program possible through their dedication to developing ecotourism in their community as a path to economic, environmental and cultural sustainability.

The name of the Arviat Tourism Coordinator for ACE is Olivia Tagalik and she is the amazing young woman organizing all inbound travel to the hamlet.

We have been at this for almost three years already, and for the next two years, The Tourism Company team, of which I am a proud member, will continue to work with the Arviat community to build human resource capacity in ecotourism, mentor small business development and support the ACE initiative through on-going workshops and hands-on training in eco-guiding,  foodservice, accommodation, hospitality operations, designing ecotourism product,  marketing and sales.

One of the biggest needs in Arviat to support ecotourism development is more accommodation.  The opportunity is significant for a developer willing to collaborate and/or partner with a local Inuit entity to build small hotel infrastructure which adheres to sustainability principles and offers co-op training, apprenticeships and mentoring in foodservice and hospitality.  Such a facility would find wide support and healthy occupancy in this hamlet which, due to temporary and contract workers, is often bursting at the seams with room shortages and where ADRs are consistently $200, year-round.