An Agent Finds a Niche in Canada's Far North
by Judy Jacobs /Being a travel agent in Canada’s far North might not be the first career choice for many people. Winter can last as long as eight months and the nearest major city is 900 miles away.
But for Irene Golchert of Top of the World Travel in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, it’s all good: This is the life she knows and loves.
Golchert’s higher education was subsidized by the Northwest Territories’ provincial government, provided she returned to the province to work. She began her studies in a secretarial program, but it wasn’t for her and she enrolled in the two-year travel agent program at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary.
After graduating and a year living in Europe Golchert returned to Yellowknife. She has been a travel agent there for 25 years, 22 of them with Top of the World, an Ensemble agency.
A big small town
Although Yellowknife has a population of only about 20,000, as Golchert said, “It’s a pretty big small town, really a city.”
As the capital of the Northwest Territories and a center for diamond mining, there’s plenty of business travel by government workers and corporate clients, but 90% of Golchert’s business is leisure.
Her clients tend to be under 60-years-old. “We don’t’ have older people in our city,” she said. “They leave after they retire.”
Escaping the cold
In spite of its small population, Yellowknife residents have significant disposable income and they want to get away in the winter when temperatures can dip well below zero.
“People around here make fairly good money. Jobs are plentiful and they pay well,” Golchert said.
“It’s cold here, so when the snow comes, people think that they need to go somewhere hot – Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,” she said. “It’s five hours to Cuba with one direct flight.”
Top of the World is Canada’s northernmost travel agency.
The company had a branch in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut province but closed it a few years ago because it was too difficult to find staff who wanted to live so far north and in a town without road access.
The need for an agent
Although she’s never worked as a travel agent elsewhere, Golchert is convinced that people in the Yellowknife vicinity need an agent even more than in other places. Her agency sells more than just tickets and tour packages.
“People want to one-stop shop,” said Golchert. “They use us for our expertise in getting them from a smaller community right to their destination. They don’t want to book online, because they value a travel agent’s ability to get them from a remote place to a big world out there.
“We sell everything, even luggage. We’re a big travel agency and at the front of our shop is luggage and travel accessories because there’s limited shopping here, and people need those things to be able to travel.”
Weather-related challenges
Being an agent in the Canadian far north has its own set of difficulties. Not surprisingly, most of them are weather-related.
“Weather and connections are our biggest challenges; it’s never A to B for us,” Golchert said. “We need to really know our northern routings, many of which have limited flights that aren’t always daily.
“If people are coming from further north of us and get weathered out for two or three days, we have to know how to handle it.”
Numerous rewards
In spite of the challenges, Golchart said the rewards are many.
“People are happy to be spending their money, and when they come back they tell us about their trips and become our friends,” she said.
“Because we live in a smaller city, we make friendships that turn into great relationships.”