Report recommends more controls on Nunavut cruise ship tourists

Dancers and drummers entertain cruise ship visitors during a Cambridge Bay stopover in 2014. (FILE PHOTO)

BRIAN PEHORA

Nunavut communities and the tourism industry want new tourism legislation to maximize the economic benefits of tourism, says a report done for the Government of Nunavut.

The report was submitted in advance of changes to the Travel and Tourism Act that Nunavut’s department of Economic Development and Transportation wants to introduce next year.

In September and October, the ED&T department and Nunavut Tourism undertook consultations in seven Nunavut communities and held meetings with travel industry representatives.

The responsibility for promoting and developing tourism in Nunavut is split between ED&T and Nunavut Tourism, an industry association made up of members that operate tourism related businesses in Nunavut.

But ED&T has the money and will provide $3.08 million to fund Nunavut Tourism during the next fiscal year — a 70 per cent increase over last year’s budget.

Tait Communications, the author of the report, which summarizes the outcome of last fall’s consultations, recommends that the new Travel and Tourism Act outline minimum quality and safety standards for the industry to “create assurances about the level of service available.”

Cruise ships and yachts are not covered by tourism legislation that Nunavut inherited from the Northwest Territories in 1999.

To update the act to cover marine tourism, the report makes three recommendations, calling for:

• a limit on the number of cruise ship passengers in a community at one time, as determined by the community;

• a tax on cruise passengers to fund programs to grow the tourism industry; and,

• a visitor code of conduct so that tourists can “learn about Inuit culture and about what to expect in a community and how to interact with the community and the environment.”

On licencing for outfitters, the report recommends the new act should simplify that process.

Tourism outfitters complain the current process of obtaining licenses is “complicated, overwhelming, onerous, redundant, intimidating discouraging and a barrier to business entry.”

But hotel managers rejected the idea that Nunavut hotels should adopt the internationally-recognized star system for measuring hotel quality, on the grounds that Nunavut’s hotels would “never be able to meet those standards,” the report said.

The report instead recommends that industry “could develop descriptors that accurately reflect the realities of accommodation in Nunavut.”

Other recommendations include:

• improved data collection;

• the creation of a training process; and,

• a policy on the use of remote-controlled robots known as drones.

A report tabled in the legislative assembly of Nunavut during the fall sitting raised concerns about the “transparency of Nunavut Tourism’s financial and operational reporting” as well as its relationship with ED&T.

The committee that created the report wants Nunavut Tourism to submit business plans, detailed expense reports and reports on various projects to the legislative assembly.

Consultation Report: Nunavut Travel and Tourism Act by NunatsiaqNews