Aupaluk, Cape Dorset make top Canada travel list

Pack your bags and head to Aupaluk to see the icebergs, says a new tourism campaign. (PHOTO COURTESY CANADIAN TOURISM COMMISSION)

KANGIQSUJUAQ — Canada’s tourism industry has chosen iceberg viewing off the Ungava Coast as one of the top must-see winter destinations.

Locals Know is a national advertising campaign that, along with a panel of travel writers and personalities, named the Nunavik village of Aupaluk and its icebergs as one of the top 13 travel destinations in Canada

In Nunavut, panellists selected Cape Dorset, the region’s centre for drawing, printmaking and carving. About a quarter of the community’s labour force is employed in the arts.

The travel recommendations are launched to coincide with the Vancouver Olympics; the Canadian Tourism Commission-funded initiative hopes to inspire visitors to discover lesser-known places in Canada.

After screening 500 winter travel submissions, travel television personality Bruce Kirby said he was sold on the image of the iceberg flanked by an Arctic sunset.

“I felt that the spirit of this campaign was to highlight interesting and significant places that maybe aren’t on most people’s radar,” Kirby told Nunatsiaq News. “We have an amazing, ancient culture… right here in our own country.”

Kirby, who appears as a guide on the CBC’s No Opportunity Wasted, has worked as a guide with Nahanni Travel Adventures in the Northwest Territories for more than 20 years.

He says people have a lot of misconceptions about the north, namely bugs. “I can guarantee you plenty of beautiful, bug-free days up there,” he said.

Locals Know didn’t limit their northern picks to Nunavut and Nunavik; the top-13 list included polar bear watching on Hudson Bay (Manitoba), the Yukon River and Inuvik’s famous Igloo Church of the North.

The only downfall to the Locals Know top-13 destination list was that it was compiled by people who hadn’t actually visited many of the locations.

Panellists selected their top destinations based on a bank of images that were uploaded by the public, of which some could be local people.

But Kirby says he has been eyeing a trip up the George River for awhile now. “It’s been on my radar forever,” he said.

Readers are invited to out-do the top-13 list by posting their own favourite winter locations.

Anyone can uploads a photo and description of their favourite winter-themed spot to www. localsknow.ca before March 21 to be entered to win one of 13 Canadian getaway prizes.