Beaufort Delta prepares for busy summer, after campground use up 122% in 2018
Communities in the Northwest Territories' Beaufort Delta region are expecting another busy tourist season, after record numbers of visitors flocked north for a summer drive to the Arctic Ocean on the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway last year.
The region saw a 122 per cent increase in campground use. Tuktoyaktuk — a hamlet with no designated campground — recorded more than 5,000 visitors last summer.
According to data from the territorial Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Jak Territorial Park and Gwich'in Territorial Park — both located near Inuvik, N.W.T. — were the busiest parks in the region, with Gwich'in going from 488 overnight visitors in 2017 to 1,258 last year.
The Happy Valley campground, located in Inuvik and mostly used by tourists, had 3,442 visitors — more than double the 1,593 visitors it had in 2017.
But some things will be different for visitors making the drive to Tuktoyaktuk this summer: "the point," an area in the north end of the community next to the Arctic Ocean, will be restricted to day use only.
"We had a good learning curve from last year especially in regarding the RV parking [at] the point," said Merven Gruben, Tuktoyaktuk's mayor.
"It was just too much traffic there … and too much for us to handle as well."
Gruben said they are working with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment to open up "one or two areas" for RV parking before June. Gruben said they will also be making sure to charge people an overnight fee this time, in order to make some money back.
The department will help the hamlet upgrade its visitor centre from a small shack to a larger building. But Gruben says the territory should be doing more.
"We are just doing our best to accommodate [the tourists]," he said. "As the hamlet, we should be looking after the people and our community, not the people coming in."
Territorial gov't invests more than $1M in region
Don Craik, the department's superintendent of the Beaufort Delta Regional Office, said the N.W.T. government is developing solutions for the community.
Craik said a feasibility study on opening a new day use area along the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway has been completed. They have narrowed it down to three possible sites and hope to start construction by next year.
The new day use area would be "for the community as well as the travellers along the highway," he said.
The department has budgeted more than $1 million to spend in the Beaufort Delta region for the 2019-20 year.
"We are increasing the capacity at Gwich'in Territorial Park … we are putting a lot of funding to maintenance," said Craik.
He said they will be adding eight new RV sites to Gwich'in park, in the hopes that it takes some pressure off Inuvik's Jak park and makes more room for tourists.
