Yukon reaps rewards of Jeux du Canada Games exposure

(Originally published in TOURISM)

City of Whitehorse tourism coordinator Sheila Dodd is gearing up for her usual tourism year with “lots of traffic on the road that comes mainly by RV.” Yukon has enjoyed steady growth on the tourism front in recent years, unaffected by crippling event like SARS or 9/11.

Explains Dodd: “People seem to think this is a place where nothing like that could ever happen, and they are entirely right. “Visitors come from all over the States, from places as far away as Texas and Alabama. But this year we also have special things happening because we have just had the Canada Winter Games here, which gave us a much bigger profile across Canada because of the exceptional air time and media coverage that came with the event.”

As a result, Dodd says, her office is getting many more phone calls and emails from Canadians who have seen Whitehorse on TV during the Canada Games and from people who know someone who participated in the games. “They are now calling to find out how to get here and what it is like in the summer. That is the change we are seeing this year, which is fantastic because tourism is our #1 industry.”

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