Arctic line expects good year as sales double over 2006

It didn't take long for high-kicking Aisa Pirti find his sea legs aboard the Lyubov Orlova.

Pirti, 20, an award-winning athlete, is a student working at Cruise North for the summer. He admits he felt dizzy during his first few days out at sea, but soon he was demonstrating Inuit games for cruise passengers.

"I accidentally kicked too hard, and touched the ceiling," Pirti said. "Everybody was impressed."

A student at Montreal's Collège Marie-Victorin, Pirti is one of 14 young Nunavimmiut, aged 16 to 23, working for Cruise North this summer.

Hiring Nunavik students is key to Cruise North's plan to increase Inuit employment at the three-year-old Arctic cruise company, which is owned by Makivik Corp.

"Students will be doing everything. We have them shadowing every job on the ship," said Dugald Wells, president of Cruise North, in an interview from Red Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Red Bay, the site of five Basque whaling stations that operated between 1540 and 1610 in the region, was one of the first stops for the Lyubov Orlova as the 120-passenger ship set out on the first of its 10 Arctic cruises.

Before boarding the ship in St. John's, 14 Nunavik students received training in marine safety and zodiac operations. Now, two students are working in the ships' galley, three in hotel manager's office, two as bartenders, three as cultural guides and three as zodiac drivers. Nearly all are trilingual.

Cultural guide Amanda Tukirqi, 19, from Kangiqsujuaq, a student at Montreal's CEGEP St-Laurent, said she has already surprised a few French-speaking passengers with her fluency in French.

She and the other students hired by Cruise North were among the top candidates from a pool of 45 youth who took a two-day hospitality course offered in collaboration with the Kativik Regional Government's employment and training department.

To welcome cruise ship passengers, Nunavik communities are also creating on-ground attractions – such a sod house in Quaqtaq – for cruise ship passengers. "That's a positive development," Wells said.

Wells said Cruise North, which will travel around Nunavik and Nunavut in 2007, expects to have "a really good year." In July, the Lyubov Orlova will depart from Churchill, Kuujjuaq, Iqaluit and Resolute on week long cruises.

By late June, Cruise North's sales had already doubled from 2006 and several cruises sold out. About half the passengers are from Europe, with many from France.

Wells credits the increase in Cruise North's business worldwide in 2007 in part to positive media coverage, including several awards Cruise North has received from leading travel magazines, and the 2006 award of excellence from the Nunavut Tourism Association.