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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Polar bears may thin out, but not Churchill tourism

By: Lindsey Wiebe

24/11/2008 12:00 AM | Comments: 0

EVEN if climate change means there are fewer polar bears around Churchill, tourists will continue to flock to the self-proclaimed polar- bear capital, says a researcher who spent three seasons studying bear tourism in the area.

"All the scientific projections are saying there's going to be fewer bears and less healthy bears in Churchill in the future, but tourists still want to come and see them," said University of Waterloo PhD student Jackie Dawson. "The demand is very resilient."

Of more than 400 visitors to Churchill surveyed, many said they would still have made the journey even if they knew they might not see any polar bears.

Final analysis isn't finished, but Dawson said 82 per cent of the more than 300 tourists surveyed last year said they would still have gone to Churchill if they knew they would see only a quarter as many bears as they actually saw.

Dawson partnered with University of Calgary student Emma Stewart for the study, funded in part by the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Despite its multimillion-dollar tourism industry, Churchill's good fortunes could wane if polar bears disappear. Roughly 72 per cent of people said they would go elsewhere to see polar bears if they couldn't be found in Churchill.

Dawson found that despite their concern for polar bears, just 69 per cent of tourists believed air travel contributed to climate change.

"It's kind of the interesting, ironic paradox, that people are travelling from all over the world to view one of the most vulnerable species to climate change, but in doing so are contributing to the cycling impacts of climate change," she said.

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 24, 2008 A5

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