The number of reservations made in Northwest Territories’ Campgrounds’ (Canada) initial week this year fell from 3,763 in 2021 to 3,029 in 2022, the NWT’s Department of Industry, Tourism, and Investment said on its website.
According to a report, the possible explanations include NWT families planning to travel farther after two summers of pandemic-related travel restrictions.
The numbers are early signs of foreign interest in the NWT as restrictions ease.
While campground visits aren’t necessarily a priority for tourists, ITI said a quarter of visits to the campground reservation website within its first week were from outside Canada–with 23% coming from the United States and two percent from elsewhere.
“Ninety percent of total reservations made in the Beaufort Delta came from outside of the NWT,” the department stated.
“That compares to 48 percent for South Slave parks and 40 percent in the Dehcho. Only six percent of bookings in the North Slave came from outside of the NWT.”
North Slave parks received 2,371 reservations in the first four days. The Fred Henne campground in Yellowknife received 750 reservations within only 23 minutes since the system went live, ITI said.
NWT Parks welcomed a total of 25,843 overnight visitors last year; 12% more than in 2020 but less than the pre-pandemic total of 35,249 in 2019.
This story originally appeared on Cabin Radio.