Frontiers North Adventures-- Inspiring Sustainable Wildlife Adventures in Northern Canada
Frontiers North Adventures (FNA) is the premiere provider of exciting wildlife programs in Northern Canada. The goal of Frontiers North is to provide guests with a quality nature experience in a responsible and sustainable manner. FNA not only inspires guests to view and learn about local wildlife, but to also learn about the history and culture of the North Canadian community. FNA is dedicated to being socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible in order to promote the well being of guests, the local community, and the environment and eco-systems in which they operate. FNA has a variety of environmental, employee, community, and educational practices to promote their goal of ...
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mr.
First name
John
Last name
Gunter
Your job title
General Manager
Name of your organization
Frontiers North Adventures
Organization type
Organization Type
Annual budget/currency
Annual Budget/Currency
Mailing address
Mailing Address
Telephone number
Telephone Number
Postal/Zip Code
Country
United States
Email address
Alternative email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
Frontiers North Adventures Box 40063 RPO Lagimodiere
City
Winnipeg
State/Province
Manitoba
Postal/Zip Code
R2C 4P3
Country
Canada
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists , Quality of benefit to residents for the destination , Quality of tourism management by destination leadership .
Organization size
Small (1 to 100 employees)
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Tourism-related business
Year innovation began
1987
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Indicate sector in which you principally work
Adventure.
Name Your Project
Frontiers North Adventures-- Inspiring Sustainable Wildlife Adventures in Northern Canada
Describe Your Idea
Frontiers North Adventures (FNA) is the premiere provider of exciting wildlife programs in Northern Canada. The goal of Frontiers North is to provide guests with a quality nature experience in a responsible and sustainable manner. FNA not only inspires guests to view and learn about local wildlife, but to also learn about the history and culture of the North Canadian community. FNA is dedicated to being socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible in order to promote the well being of guests, the local community, and the environment and eco-systems in which they operate. FNA has a variety of environmental, employee, community, and educational practices to promote their goal of ...
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation? Please describe in one sentence the kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Provide guests with the opportunity to learn about Churchill’s culture and history, while promoting the environmental sustainability of surrounding communities and ecosystems.
Please write an overview of your project. Include how your approach supports or embodies geotourism or destination stewardship. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the map located on the competition homepage.
Frontiers North Adventures (FNA) is the premiere provider of exciting wildlife programs in Northern Canada. The goal of Frontiers North is to provide guests with a quality nature experience in a responsible and sustainable manner. FNA not only inspires guests to view and learn about local wildlife, but to also learn about the history and culture of the North Canadian community. FNA is dedicated to being socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible in order to promote the well being of guests, the local community, and the environment and eco-systems in which they operate. FNA has a variety of environmental, employee, community, and educational practices to promote their goal of sustainable tourism. They are an industry leader in the areas of best practice policies, procedures and training systems, and ensuring minimal impact on polar bears and the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
Frontiers North Adventures is innovative due to the many areas in which it promotes responsibility. While the main focus of sustainability is the environment and the local wildlife and community, FNA also encourages programs for employees, the local community, and education. Environmentally, FNA has lobbied to cap the number of tourism vehicles issued for the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, including their own popular Tundra Buggies. They work to define, develop, and implement policies for Manitoba’s polar bear tourism industry, and they continue to support and contribute to research related to the ecosystems in which they operate, including the impacts on Churchill’s polar bears. FNA also employs an extremely diverse workforce, and they employ as many local residents as possible. They invest annually in communities in which they host guests, generating economic activity in Northern Canada, and donate to local charities and schools. Frontiers North hosts a Polar Bears International (PBI) Leadership Camp that brings high school students from all over the world to Churchill to participate in leadership activities and to explore a range of issues relating to polar bears and the environment. FNA’s innovation stems from its variety of sustainable programs that promote Northern Canada and its amazing wildlife.
Impact
Describe the degree of success you have had to date. How do you measure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact on sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How has it transformed or contributed to the power of place or demonstrated the sustainability of tourism? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
FNA has won various awards including the 2007 Nunavut Tourism Award of Excellence, which recognizes sustainability development practices. FNA also won the 2004 and 2005 Travel Manitoba award, for ecotourism and sustainable tourism, respectively, and the 2004 PBI Outstanding Corporate Citizen Award for FNA's major contributions to the PBI Adventure Learning Program.
FNA has also hosted many TV and print media guests such as E! Entertainment Television, BBC Wildlife Magazine, and Entertainment Tonight Canada. Furthermore, images captured from FNA’s Polar Bear Cam on one of their Tundra Buggies were shown on the Oprah Winfrey show, which has an average audience base of 8.838 million viewers.
FNA owner Merv Gunter, has taken a lead role in the development of Destination Churchill, a stand-alone community-based industry organization with strategic priorities to make Churchill a four-season, accessible destination for world-class visitor experiences. Churchill is everyday better known as a three-season destination; northern lights in spring, beluga whales during summer and polar bears every autumn.
Finally, FNA annually invests $5 million in the Churchill economy that generates over $12.5 million of economic activity. FNA is an active member in the local, regional, national and global sustainable tourism communities.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your work, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
To make their programs even more successful, FNA employs as many Canadian and local Northern staff and guides as they can and utilize many local suppliers such as Canada Goose Outerwear. The community also benefits immensely from the efforts of FNA. They invest in the local communities in which they operate to promote economic development in those areas and in 2008, Frontiers North led the development of a Churchill recycling program. FNA also award a scholarship to a Churchill secondary school graduate, and visit local schools to conduct presentations to raise awareness of issues affecting polar bears and Canada’s north.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
FNA’s variety of adventures helps to engage guests and provide them with a one-of-a-kind experience. These adventures provide a personal interaction with the incredible nature of Northern Canada and the local culture that is impossible to find elsewhere. The Tundra Buggy Adventures are the best ways to view the Churchill polar bears and Frontiers North even re-charted their Tundra Buggy trail to generate a negligible impact on the environment. What promotes visitor satisfaction and engagement is the unimaginable experience guests are having, while knowing that FNA is continuously promoting environmental sustainability and doing whatever possible to preserve the wildlife and ecosystems of Northern Canada.
Describe how your work helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues.
Travelers and local residents can better understand the value of the Northern Canada’s cultural and natural heritage because FNA allows them to become immersed as a part of nature. Travelers are allowed to see and take pictures of beluga whales and polar bears in their natural habitats and learn about the community in which these animals thrive. Local residents are made aware of the value of their community because FNA invests in keeping it pristine and sustainable for the wildlife to flourish for generations to come. FNA educates travelers through their extremely knowledgeable adventure guides, and nature and photo specialists. FNA also continuously update their staff training as new information becomes available, and they provide locals schools with education to raise awareness for polar bears and other wildlife of Northern Canada.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
FNA is a Canadian controlled private corporation that is for-profit. Revenue categories are: package tours, Tundra Buggy tours, leasing of Buggies to third parties, gift shop retail and the use of the Tundra Buggy Lodge.
During polar bear tourism season, approximately 6,000 worldwide visitors come to Churchill, Manitoba. This volume of guests accounts for approximately 2/3’s of the total visitors to Churchill at that time of year.
As of 2009, FNA employs 16 full-time and two part-time employees in Winnipeg and 40 seasonal employees in Churchill for a total of 58 people.
All budget and revenue information is confidential.
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
FNA positions itself as a professional outsourced tourism resource and has successfully applied the business model developed in Churchill for polar bear tourism products to other tourism products in Canada’s north.
This FNA-developed concept empowers and relies on local suppliers in Canada’s north, who have superior knowledge and understanding of their land, to focus on on-the-ground operations required in tour fulfillment, such as expediting and guiding. FNA’s role in this relationship is to provide organization, management, marketing, sales, logistics and accounting functions to develop and operate market-ready programs.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
The main barriers FNA encounters working in Canada’s north are cultural and societal differences. Having lived and worked in both the remote arctic and sometimes being only able to work with what you’ve got, as well as in faster-paced civic centers in the south, FNA knows that a delicate balance must be maintained when working in geotourism destinations. Examples of FNA understanding and appreciating this concept include having lobbied to cap the number of commercial operating permits in Churchill’s Wildlife Management Area, and working with local suppliers to develop sustainable tourism products to maintain the integrity of the tourism product. Finally, FNA ownership personally invests resources into Destination Churchill to aid in the sharing of tourism knowledge, standards, and best practices.
What is your plan to expand or further develop your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
FNA is currently expanding roles in Churchill sustainability efforts being lead by Travel Manitoba, Destination Churchill, the Community of Churchill and the University of Manitoba.
FNA is currently developing a new Cree (First Nations) interpretive program exploring a sustainable lifestyle as a trapper in Manitoba’s north. The program will illustrate to guests the importance of harvesting from the earth only what we need to survive. The message will be made clear by FNA guides that the people of Canada’s north who are being most affected by global warming are the people who have contributed the least.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
John Gunter is the General Manager of Frontiers North Adventures and is responsible for daily operations of the organization and ensuring a world-class tourism experience for all guests.
Since joining the company full-time in 2003, John has played a vital role in developing FNA’s relationship with Polar Bears International and securing business partnerships with Canada Goose Expedition Clothing Outfitters, Lowepro Worldwide, National Geographic Magazine, WildlifeHD and WWF-Canada.
John graduated with honors from the University of Manitoba’s I.H. Asper School of Business with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and attended the Operational Leadership Program at Queen’s School of Business Executive Development Centre.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
The Northern Canadian tourism market developed in the late 1970s catering mainly to wildlife photographers. Frontiers North Adventures opened its doors in 1987 to respond to the market demand for packaged wildlife experiences in Canada’s north, specifically to Churchill, Manitoba to view Canada’s polar bears. Over time, FNA developed programs that included time photographing wildlife as well as time invested experiencing first-hand local Aboriginal and Inuit cultures through presentations and interpretations highlighting oral histories, ways of life, traditional clothing, games and beliefs – all of which are tour components now common to virtually all tourism in Canada’s North. To date the ‘cultural enthusiast’ product category developed by Frontiers North is the company’s most popular. In 1999, FNA acquired Churchill’s Tundra Buggy Tours and is now recognized as the top adventure travel provider in Canada’s north. FNA acknowledges that in order to operate successfully in some of the world’s most fragile environments, they had to ensure that all their business decisions were and are made with the utmost respect for and providing benefit to the social, ethical, and sustainable well-being of the communities and ecosystems in which they operate.
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
Black and White Bear Adventures: guests can view and photograph black bears in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park as well as polar bears in Manitoba.
Polar Bears at Legendary Cape Churchill: the Tundra Buggy Adventure is the only tour company allowed access to Wapusk National Park, granting a one-of-a-kind polar bear viewing and photography experience.
Churchill Town & Tundra Buggy Experience: these hotel-based Adventures offer a well-rounded program combining polar bear viewing with activities in and around the community of Churchill to learn more about the local history and culture.
Elu Inlet Lodge: guests stay in the virtually unchanged area of Nunavut, Canada where the lodge is owned and operated by local Inuit and they can experience the virtually unexplored wilderness.
Belugas, Birds, and Blooms: the Tundra Buggy travels over a system of established trails, stopping at leisure to enjoy the scenery, search for wildlife, and take photos of the sub-arctic region. Activities include beluga whale watching, snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, and town and area tours.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
FNA partners with companies and organizations that not only operate in a sustainable and responsible manner, but focus on promoting education and conservation of wildlife.
FNA has a network of resellers that was created by partnering with destination marketing organizations, such as Travel Manitoba, Canadian Tourism Commission, and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
Frontiers North was the first major sponsor of Polar Bears International (PBI), a non-profit organization dedicated to the worldwide conservation of polar bears, and has maintained Platinum Level sponsorship. FNA’s other important partnerships include Bushnell Optics, Canada Goose Expedition Clothing, Lowepro Photo Carriers, WildlifeHD, and WWF-Canada.
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