Fort Smith and Hay River are planning to co-develop tourism packages for the South Slave region after attending a series of tourism development workshops.
The workshops, held over April 20 to 22 in Fort Smith, brought together representatives from the two towns as well as other businesses and organizations with a stake in the tourism industry.
The workshops also targeted entrepreneurs, helping them plan or expand their businesses.
Around 40 people from the two communities, as well as from Kátł’odeeche First Nation and Fort Chipewyan, attended the sessions over three days. While the workshops were primarily developed and facilitated by Firecircle, a company which specializes in helping remote tour operators to develop their businesses, there were also presentations by NWT Tourism and local entrepreneur Brenda Dragon, who owns Aurora Heat.
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Fort Smith resident Robyn Brown, who owns Early Bird Homestead and is a lead organizer for Slave River Paddlefest, attended the workshops both for her business and the paddling festival.
“The most valuable part was networking with the other participants. I’ve been looking for a new property to expand my microgreens business, and I met someone from the town who directed me to some info on a property that I’ve had my eyes on,” Brown wrote to Cabin Radio.
“I also met another local business owner who is interested in supporting and possibly even investing in my business.”
Early Bird Homestead, which Brown launched in 2022, sells things like sunflower, radish, broccoli, and pea shoots microgreens, in addition to homemade sourdough bread. She’s also hoping to sell fresh eggs in the future.
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One of the highlights of the development workshops for Brown was touring the Flat World Alpaca Farm, which gave her ideas for how she could also offer tours of her microgreens farm.
‘We’re competing on a global scale’
“We’re not competing against our neighbours. We’re not competing against the business owners in our communities,” said Emily Colucci, Fort Smith’s director of community services, noting the sessions helped spark the tourism potential of the South Slave for people.
“We’re competing on a global scale at this point. When people choose to spend their money on travel, they could travel anywhere in the world,” Colucci said.
“Finding that special gem that sets us apart, that’s going to bring people here, and creating that story and destination … we just scratched the surface of it.”
Workshops covered everything from branding and marketing to pricing and partnerships, said Diane Seals, Fort Smith’s economic development officer.
She described “really practical presentations” from the likes of the NWT government, federal economic development agency CanNor, and Parks Canada about becoming a licensed operator or guide, funding opportunities, and Indigenous tourism opportunities.
“We finished the day up with building potential packages in a really practical way, and pricing, and what the partnerships could look like,” Seals said.
In particular, the towns of Hay River and Fort Smith plan to work together to offer regional tourism packages – so rather than put together itineraries for tourists involving just one town, the towns will work to promote each other.
Seals said apart from collaborating to co-host the 2018 Arctic Winter Games, the neighbouring towns haven’t partnered in this way before.
