Canada -- dogsledding tourism

from today's Edmonton Journal (9/15):

N.W.T. dogsledder turns mushing into tourism gold
Visitors to Canada's North seek adventure, not just sights
Trish Audette
The Edmonton Journal
Monday, September 15, 2008

"YELLOWKNIFE - Grant Beck's dogsledding heritage reaches back more than a century to the days his German ancestors spent hunting and trapping along Great Slave Lake." ...

"In winter, visitors can take the reins after a short mushing lesson and lead a crew of 14 Alaskan huskies over packed snow. In summer, the dogs are hooked up to a Kawasaki Mule 3010 utility vehicle and run along a short trail." ...

"More mushers are coming around to the same idea, says Richard Zieba, director of tourism and parks for the Northwest Territories.

"The dogsledding is a major attraction or activity for a lot of people," Zieba says, adding there is a growing demand for "experiential tourism" -- activities visitors can get involved in, rather than stand and watch.

Because the cost of flying into Yellowknife -- let alone more remote areas of the territories -- is so prohibitive, the government focuses on the "high-yield market," Zieba says. Essentially, these are "well-educated people who want to experience something off the beaten track."

To appeal particularly to Japanese and German tourists -- and, in the future, Korean, Mexican and Australian tourists -- phrases like "the adventure of a lifetime" are used to describe a vacation in the territories." ...

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