Clever marketing, price-tweaks help Cruise North survive

Dugald Wells, the president and chief executive of Cruise North Expeditions, scans the scenery during an early morning zodiac ride in Creswell Bay, Somerset Island Sept. 3. Despite a rocky economy, Wells said his company has seen its bookings remain steady this summer. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Despite a tourism market that’s been battered by the recent recession, the president and CEO of Cruise North Expeditions says his company has seen its numbers hold steady.

In fact, economic analysts are starting to see signs of an economic recovery and Dugald Wells says his company is starting to see signs of that too.

“Bookings are already coming in for next year, even though we don’t have our brochure out yet,” he said.

The recession has lead to a steep drop in tourism everywhere.

According to the World Tourism Organization’s most recent figures, international tourism dropped 8.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada reported that total tourism spending in Canada dropped 2.3 per cent in the last three months of 2008.

“It has been a very challenging year,” Wells said. “November and December were dead. It’s the only word I can use to describe it. Normally, that’s when we’re taking a lot of interest.”

Cruise North, owned by Nunavik’s Makivik Corp., saw demand perk up after they offering some two-for-one fares, while at the same time raised fares to come closer to competitors, Wells said.

What that adds up to, Wells said, is an occupancy rate of about 70 per cent, the same as last year, though the company has seen its average revenue per passenger drop only slightly.

He won’t go into details, but he said, “that’s pretty close to where our break-even point is.”

Cruise North just finished its fifth season. It isn’t a start-up anymore, Wells said, but it’s still a young company, making it especially important to fill cabins with passengers and show them a good time.

Word of mouth is the best way to build brand awareness of the company, he said.

And with a limited advertising budget, Wells said the company instead targets news and other media.

That’s how Nunatsiaq News got on a recent cruise between Resolute and Gjoa Haven: passage on the ship itself was free, although airfare to Resolute on Air Inuit, a fellow member of the Makivik stable of companies, cost $500.

Also on that cruise were two American travel writers, a Swiss travel writer and a three-person film crew from the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Wells said Cruise North will continue to target the well-travelled type.

In North America, the company goes after people who have interest in the idea of the North: in Inuit culture, and in the history of non-Inuit exploration and mythology.

Many of the passengers on the cruise were well informed about the North and came loaded with insightful questions. One man even said he wanted to “wave the sovereignty flag” by spending his tourist dollars north of 60.

By contrast, European passengers typically consider the Canadian Arctic an “exotic” destination.

“There’s not much pristine wilderness left, there’s not much authentic culture left, it’s those people who start looking for those things,” Wells said. “And that’s when they come and they find us.”