DAWSON CITY – The Tourism Association of Yukon (TIAY) brought its fall conference back to Dawson City last week for the third time in recent years.

While most of the program, built around the theme “Adapting to Change”, was scheduled to take place last Thursday and Friday, there were two events the previous Wednesday evening.

The Industry Insights forum got some of the reflections on the past year out of the way before moving on to consider the future. Most delegates had not yet settled in, but 38 people did make it to this session at Diamond Tooth Gerties to listen to several updates.

Valerie Royle, the deputy minister of Tourism and Culture, highlighted some of the department’s information from the year. Overall, she indicated that it had been a good season.

Diane Wilson, representing Parks Canada, began by saying that 2019 was “a summer of fire,” impacting people trying to get to Dawson and in the park zone on the border of Kluane.

“It was the summer of fire bans,” Wilson said. “It was a summer of evacuation planning.”

The statistics for the Chilkoot Trail were actually up a bit, according to the most recent numbers.

“We’ve been steadily growing on the Chilkoot,” Wilson said.

“We’re now up over 3,166 hikers on the trail, so we’re really pleased about that.

“We were less excited about the eight evacuations from the Chilkoot Trail, so we’re going to dig into that.”

Parks’ Visitors Information Center at the Carcross Commons was up 34 per cent, Wilson reported.

The SS Klondike tours in Whitehorse were down a bit, but well within average numbers, and the culinary festival based there went well.

Mainly due to the wildfires, Kluane visitation was down by 10 per cent.

Wilson noted that several co-operative ventures were in progress or in planning with First Nations in Whitehorse, Champagne, Haines Junction and around Kluane Lake.

“In Dawson, we were 15 per cent up on the number of people attending our guided tours,” she said

This year’s Escape Room experience was “super-creepy” in Lowe’s Mortuary.

Renovations to the fire suppression system at the Commissioner’s Residence have been completed and it will be open for tours again in 2020.

Jackie Olson is the executive director of the Klondike Visitors Association and a board member of the Yukon First Nation Culture and Tourism Association.

Olson spoke mainly about the progress that has been made recently in the promotion, funding and organization of authentic First Nation experiences within the tourism industry. Education and programs are being developed to strengthen and develop that industry.

Neil Fletcher, from Cassiar Consulting, reported on his activities.

The evening concluded with an opening reception at the Dawson City Museum.

The remainder of the week featured presentations about the future of travel, evaluating the hidden costs in the industry, dealing with emergency planning, and Greenland’s tourism successes.