Qamutik Travel closes Rankin office

SARA MINOGUE

Two people in Rankin Inlet had to find new employment when Qamutik Travel Ltd. shut its doors on June 30, after 20 years of business.

Peter Balt, president of The Evaz Group in Grimsby, Ont., which launched the travel company as a joint venture with Tapiriit Developments Ltd., says the closure is “not a function of the North, but of the travel industry in general.”

In the early 1990s, a travel agency could expect to make an 8 per cent commission on every airline ticket it sold. By mid-decade, more and more customers were skirting travel agencies and buying tickets directly from the airlines themselves.

As airlines relied less and less on travel agents to sell seats, they began to cut back on their commissions, butting them to as low as 3 per cent.

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York were another blow to the travel industry, which suffered from a dwindling number of customers. After that date, many airlines cut their commissions entirely.

Balt says that First Air and Canadian Northern paid “reasonable” commissions for a long time, until September 2003, when they too cut commissions. WestJet remains an exception, but that airline doesn’t fly to Rankin Inlet.

Now, travel agencies need to sell vacation packages to make money, but Balt says that the population base in Rankin Inlet is not big enough to sustain a business without airline commissions.

“Lots of agencies have closed,” Balt says.

There is some doubt as to whether the population base in Iqaluit is big enough to sustain two travel offices, but Balt says that Qamutik Travel will continue to operate its Iqaluit office, and the Evaz Group has no immediate plans to close down its other Iqaluit travel agency, Top of the World Travel.

Balt doesn’t expect the closing of the Rankin Inlet office to have a major impact on the community.

“People in Rankin Inlet prefer to go to a Winnipeg travel agency,” Balt says.

He’s more concerned about the loss of private sector jobs. Qamutik Travel employed four people in Rankin Inlet as recently as five years ago. Right now, Balt says that both of the two emloyees in Rankin have already found other jobs.