Yellowknife welcomes more tourists from China

Yellowknife has been a popular destination for Japanese tourists looking to take in the northern lights, and now it's attracting more and more people from China.

Across the country, the number of tourists from China has been growing steadily since the Chinese government granted visas to travel to Canada four years ago.

Angela Law runs Yellowknife Tours with her husband and daughter. When they started the company three years ago, they hosted a few dozen people.

Last year they offered tours to more than 700 visitors.

"It takes a lot of time to educate people — where is Yellowknife, what do we offer compared to other places," Law said.

Law says this year is already surpassing last season. She says it helps business to be able to have so many customers return home having seen the northern lights.

The territory invested an additional $1.2 million in tourism this year, and about 10 per cent of that will go to marketing the territory to China for the first time.