Kyle Thomas

The Website of Kyle Thomas (KyleWith)

The First Yellowknife Airbnb Experience

Yellowknife City Tour

Before Airbnb Experiences were a thing I thought it would be a great idea for a platform. One where locals and local tour operators could list the experience they wanted to host so that visitors to that destination could experience something local and unique.

Little did I know, Airbnb was way ahead of me.

Airbnb Experiences have been out across the world, starting in larger centers, for some time now, but it wasn’t until recently that they started opening up the listing process to smaller centers, like Yellowknife.

When I learned that there was an opportunity to list one of my tours on Airbnb Experiences I started the process.

It was more rigorous than I expected, considering just about everyone can list a home or room without many barriers. I submitted my experience in October 2018. It was finally accepted in December 2018.

They review, through a third-party company, all experiences to ensure they are safe and legit. My tour involves me driving passengers so they requested that I provide them with proof of drivers license and proof of liability insurance for my guests, which I have because I’m a licensed tour operator/supplier in the Northwest Territories.

After all that, one of my tours is now the first Airbnb Experience in Yellowknife. Have a look at it here.

I’m nervous about the inquiries this might drive. Me not being a full-time tour operator, I have to be very diligent with the scheduling to only open up slots that I absolutely available to provide a tour. There is no request period, once at least one person books the experience I have to provide it.

At this time I’m holding off listing my Aurora Tour on Airbnb for fear of over-popularity but will begin that process so it is ready when I want to turn it on and as Airbnb Experiences gain popularity with other tour operators/suppliers and visitors to Yellowknife.

UPDATE: My Aurora Tour is now on Airbnb for select dates here.

Where is Yellowknife tourism right now?

Yellowknife tourism is a passion of mine, that is clear for those who know me, but if you don’t, it is. I like to live and breathe it. I want to support and push it forward in any capacity this community will allow. I want to contribute at an industry level and not just where it benefits me. I want to work on how we can develop a sustainable tourism industry, where everyone benefits. One that also contributes to making Yellowknife the best possible place to live, work and play.

I have long lists of tourism improvements Yellowknife could to look at. Before I throw those ideas into the universe I thought it would be wise to look at Yellowknife tourism as a whole. Look at where Yellowknife tourism is right now and what is being done and by whom.

Here is what I know of:

The Northern Frontier Visitor Centre closed down in July 2017. The Northern Frontier Visitor Association (NFVA) also stopped providing visitor services at the end of September 2017. The NFVA provided visitor services for 25 years. For the last few years, the NFVA received an annual combined contribution of $240,000+/- from the City of Yellowknife and GNWT ITI.

The City of Yellowknife is operating a small visitor centre at City Hall until September 30th, 2018.

As of March 16th, 2018 the City has requested a successful proponent develop a Yellowknife Visitor Center Strategy. This would direct what the City does after September 30th in terms of visitor services.

In 2016/2017, the NFVA also conducted a strategy on what the best option for a Visitor Centre in Yellowknife might look like.

NWT Tourism promotes the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife is the primary destination for tourism in the Territory. NWT Tourism must remain neutral in promoting all of the Northwest Territories.

The City of Yellowknife is lobbying the Government of the Northwest Territories – Municipal and Community Affairs Department to change the Towns and Village Act. The change would allow the City to implement an Accommodation Levy which would help fund City of Yellowknife tourism initiatives. This change in the act should be tabled in the Legislative Assembly in June 2018. If not, lets riot ;). There was some large amount of public consultation done for this.

The City of Yellowknife also contracted a local consultant to develop a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) strategy. This strategy will direct how the City of Yellowknife implements its own tourism marketing. Up until now, they claim it has only been done by NWT Tourism. A visitor guide, phone calls to a visitor centre, and visitor packages are all considered marketing in one form or another. Even a visitor centre itself is technically a marketing tool if people from outside of that destination are utilizing it for information for that destination.

Somewhere in all of this, partly due to the closing of the Northern Frontier Visitor Centre, the City of Yellowknife requested within one of there current contracts with a local contractor that they created the new brand “Extraordinary Yellowknife”. A small amount of consultation was done in very specific markets, but few industry stakeholders seemed to know about the new brand development.

In 2016/2017, Yellowknife had 70,000 visitors come through the city. They contributed at least $90 million dollars to the Yellowknife economy.

Hotels are expanding and opening. Chateau Nova opened in fall of 2016, with their second phase to open soon. The Explore Hotel is in the midst of significant expansion. A new hotel on Franklin Avenue into Old Town is nearing completion. Airbnb continues to expand with the city having very little vacancy in months like February, March, and September.

The City of Yellowknife is only responsible for tourism activities done within the city boundaries. What happens on the Ingraham Trail past the Yellowknife River is the responsibility of the GNWT.

There is no Yellowknife tourism specific organization, association, society, oversight committee or advisory board.

And that is what I know of the Yellowknife Tourism Industry to date. Have I missed anything?

I certainly have opinions on some of these points, but I don’t want them to be perceived in a negative way. I truly believe that the way forward with this industry, because Yellowknife is a relatively small place, is through inclusive, transparent and open decision making. 

I love Yellowknife and I am passionately driven to continuously promote and develop Yellowknife as a desirable place to live and visit. I want to be involved in how we develop it as a destination, even if that is just sitting in a consultation meeting or writing endless articles on the internet. Although, I hope it is much more.

Next, let’s look at some of those improvements we as a community can make to improve Yellowknife as a tourism destination.

One collective voice to make the Northwest Territories better

Last week I sat in a meeting with several Northwest Territories farmers, producers, and growers, and a common thread was how much further ahead Yukon is in terms of agriculture than the Northwest Territories. Many agricultural businesses are hindered by regulations and limited access to resources that should be readily available.

Then over the weekend, I was having a conversation with another Yellowknife entrepreneur where we noted that Whitehorse and Yukon were much further ahead than the Northwest Territories in terms of their technology, startup and innovation sector.

Which also reminded me that for years we have talked about how the Northwest Territories is so far behind Yukon in terms of territorial tourism efforts.

And just the other day I read about how High Level, Alberta – read: very small town in Northern Alberta – has an Accommodation Levy of 7% yet Yellowknife is having a hard time getting one at all to support our ever-growing tourism demand.

Ah yes, and then there is the arts sector, which is made up of the most creative people, but they are limited by grant options, gallery space, practice venues and all around support. But when they look at Yukon they see a much more developed arts sector. One that even has a University program in a small town.

The Issue

What I see and hear is that those people in those sectors care about what they do, and want the NWT to be better, but feel like the NWT is so far behind and that there is simply nothing they can do about it. And don’t misunderstand me, I don’t think Yukon has everything figured out, probably far from it, but they are ahead of the Northwest Territories.

I actually wonder if Nunavut looks of the Northwest Territories with envy and awe the same way the NWT seems to look at Yukon?

It is great to talk about these things, and look to Yukon for guidance and inspiration, but when is talking enough? When should action be put in place? And what is that action? How can we make the Northwest Territories be ahead of the Yukon for a change, or at least feel that way?

As an individual, or even within one of the sectors mentioned above, our voices seem to get lost and never taken seriously. These little pockets of people, passionate about one thing are often not loud enough voice to induce change at any rapid rate.

To an average resident of this territory, someone not within the Government of the Northwest Territories, it seems like most officials just talk about the issues facing the Northwest Territories with little to show for any *actual* change or progress.

It is heartbreaking and exhausting as a resident who loves his community and this territory to feel as though we are being held back. Spending time with these different groups – tourism, agriculture, technology, startups, arts – has opened my eyes to all the passionate people that reside here.

It is easy to say our territorial government needs to step up, loosen the rains, and push forward some change for the better. Change that would allow food producers to get off the ground without being overly regulated, or would allow for a municipal government to collect a levy to support its own tourism industry, or would allow the arts community real resources to take them to a national level, or would allow for entrepreneurs the ability to create a space and the resources to expand innovated ideas that could change the landscape of the Northwest Territories.

But at what point are we as individuals, and organizations, responsible for pushing and creating this change and saying enough is enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel exhausted on a daily basis because it seems like every new idea I have has a giant roadblock in its way and I need to become some sort of Government lobbyist just to do anything. That isn’t right. Residents should not have to lobby against its own government just to do simple things. The Northwest Territories should not be reinventing the wheel every time someone wants to do something that has never been done here before. May I point you in the direction of the NWT Brewing Co.

Maybe a solution? A step forward?

When I say we the residents, innovators, artists, growers, farmers, and tourism operators need to create the change, I mean this in the sense that we need to work together. Our voices are spread too thin when we are all lobbying for our own cause when in reality we all want similar change. We all want our regulating bodies to work with us, and not feel like their working against us, stifling our innovation, stifling our ideas.

There are organizations for food producers, the arts community, the business community, potentially the local tourism sector, and if the territorial tourism association could look past their government funding, them too. If all these organizations and any individual willing – because I believe everyone should have a voice even if they’re just one person – got together, showed up at the Legislative Assembly, wrote a letter, or simply said enough is enough and took action, maybe then we can change. Maybe then we could open the NWT up for innovation, new ideas, more creativity, a sustainable food system and who knows what else. Maybe we could attract even more tourism, develop more experience based products that showcase the territories history and culture, attract more Universities to conduct research here.

It just seems like the weight of the territory sits on the shoulders of a few, and those few sit in silos and don’t talk with one another. Maybe if they talked their collective voice would be loud enough to be noticed and effect change.

Maybe it would but maybe it would all be for not.

But at the end of the day, there are passionate people in this territory, in each of those sectors, and others – sports, sustainable energy, fishing, etc – who will get tired. Who will burn out. Who will just find a job and stay quiet for the rest of their career. Who might leave the territory altogether.

We need to stop that from happening.

Yellowknife Tourism – Thoughts from rural Mexico

Every time I travel I try to observe the local tourism economy of other communities to learn from them and bring that knowledge back to Yellowknife. I did this extensively in Iceland when I visited in October 2016, I just didn’t publish what I observed. Or have not yet.

Having these observations fresh in my mind I thought it relevant to share them as Yellowknife works to move tourism forward.

Firstly, I didn’t travel to a resort in a popular tourist area on the coast. I traveled to a lesser know destinations for Canadians. Then journeyed to a popular ex-pat community and finally Mexico City.

Here is what I noticed.

Language

I’ll be the first to say I was the ignorant tourist that didn’t bother to learn much of the local language. In this case Spanish. Heck, I don’t even know French.

What I found though, is even in this lesser traveled area for English speaking travellers, is that the local population at least tried to understand the basics of English. Let’s be clear. They didn’t need to. I believe that it is the travellers responsibility to understand the local language. Yes, I realize English is the most popular language in the world, but I could try too.

How I understood this though, is that because some of the locals rely on the income tourism provides, by way of the traveler spending money, it was in the best interest of their business and livelihood to learn the foreign language.

This benefited me because I was able to enjoy myself a little more knowing that not everything was a confusing game of charades.

The Take-Away: Yellowknife’s tourism industry draws in the majority of travellers from Japan, China, and South Korea. We owe it to these visitors to understand their language and know the basics. These visitors are supporting our businesses and our economy. We should support their interest in our community and make it more enjoyable.

Translations

This observation is tied to the above one but substantial in its own right. Again, we must acknowledge that English is a very popular language so this is not uncommon. What I noticed was that many things – not everything – was translated into English.

The most notable was restaurants. They didn’t just translate their menu onto a piece of looseleaf, their menus were in both Spanish and English from the start. Often on the same page in two columns.

The Take-Away: Translating materials that any visitors might need to read – menus, signs, posters, brochures, websites, etc – shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be integrated into the development of products, marketing, signage and so on. Yellowknife, as a whole, needs to acknowledge and accept that these visitors, who don’t speak English, or French for that matter, are coming. And to be a successful destination, translations much be an essential part of business, marketing, and everyday life.

Pride in Place – for business

When I was in this particular place in rural Mexico I had to navigate my way through hundreds, if not thousands of small alleyways up and down hills to get from the apartment to the “centro”. I would pass many businesses along the way. Small convenience shops, to artisan stores, to everyday supply businesses. When I would go for a run early in the morning I would pass shopkeeper after shopkeeper out on the walkway in front of their business scrubbing the concrete. Everyday. Cleaning a small patch that probably wasn’t theirs.

Why?

Pride in place. Even though that sidewalk or road wasn’t theirs, if it was clean it showed they cared about their business, about their customers. Be it local or visitor.

The Take-Away: Whether we operate a brick-and-mortar store or use a Territorial Park, Yellowknife, we need to take pride in the area we operate in. Not shrug it off as someone else’s responsibility or the Governments. We might not have the competitiveness of Mexico, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try a little harder to make things look a little nicer, even if that means picking up garbage in a public place.

Pride in Place – for community

Finally, and not unlike my last observation, when I was also on those early morning runs I would see municipal workers out on the streets cleaning up from the night before. Just sweeping up garbage and helping make the place presentable.

No doubt to a Canadian some places in Mexico are not as clean and pristine as we might be used to, but at the same time, the complete opposite was true. Although I was in a much bigger city in Mexico than Yellowknife, there seemed to be more pride of place in all residents, regardless of social status. There seemed to be an overall understanding that their community was a destination and because of that, the community benefited and therefore needed to always be presentable.

The Take-Away – We as a community need to 1. realize that people are coming to our community to experience it and 2. we need to all take part in cleaning it up on a regular basis. Be it just by picking up someone else’s garbage, helping for a business or non-profit that employees people to clean up the streets, or by supporting our municipality in their efforts to keep public areas clean.

Yellowknife is not in a horrible situation. We might not have a solid foundation for the influx of tourism we have seen in the last 5 years, and there might be road blocks along the way, but we need to keep moving forward, opening new doors and learning what is needed and what will work.

Let’s continue this conversation and make some things happen.

Yellowknife Tourism – My First Steps

I’ve had this long time discussion with myself about whether or not I should be an actual tour operator in Yellowknife.

Truth be told, I don’t especially want to be one, or want to do it long term.

My goals and ambitions for Yellowknife Tourism go beyond those of just operating one-off tours on a daily or nightly basis for a few visitors at a time.

My goals and ambitions are to contribute to the growth and development of tourism and placemaking in Yellowknife.

There are many thoughts that I have about those two things above, and I love talking to other people about it because everyone has a different perspective. It is my view that if we can continue to have those conversations a better roadmap will emerge with key indicators of what we as a community need to do to do to help foster Yellowknife as a high-quality destination.

If anyone is interested in talking about tourism or placemaking in Yellowknife, I’m all ears. I’ll even buy the coffee.

Why then have I become a licensed tour operator offering small group Community Tours during the day and Aurora Tours during the night?

Because it is a quick way to leverage my knowledge and passion of this place, learn first hand about what visitors are expecting, and support me financially while figuring out how to move forward.

Hammering away at developing Yellowknife as a tourism destination is a long-term goal of mine. A shorter term goal might be to shift from being a tour operator to being a promoter of current and new tour operators. Utilize my platforms as a digital marketing tool for many of the local tour operators who don’t have the time to focus on their own marketing.

It is also my hope that I continue to publish more of these thoughts and ideas with the goal of connecting with more like-minded community members.