FRONTIERS NORTH ADVENTURES
north stars Family business marks 30 years in Churchill’s tourism industry BY GEOFF KIRBYSON The Gunter family isn’t letting the prospect of operating in a fly-in community for the foreseeable future ruin the 30th anniversary of Frontiers North Adventures.
When the rail line to Churchill was washed out in 20 places during spring flooding, residents of Manitoba’s northernmost community had to brace themselves for astronomical prices for milk, bread and other supplies. But John Gunter, president and CEO of the company specializing in whale watching, getting up close (but not personal) to polar bears and dining under the northern lights, hasn’t seen any decline in the number of guests seeking experiences they simply can’t get anywhere else. While his shipping costs have increased by 500 per cent — instead of two freight trains a week, he’s receiving shipments from five boats per year — his guest arrivals in 2017 are the highest ever. “International travellers from China, Australia and the U.K. aren’t concerned about microeconomic issues in the Canadian sub-Arctic,” he says. They don’t rely on rail service, either. Last summer, a party was held for about 200 people at the Qualico Family Centre at Assiniboine Park to commemorate the contribution his parents, Merv and Lynda Gunter, have made to tourism in Manitoba’s North. They were stationed in Churchill in the early 1980s when tourism in the area was just starting to become
a thing. Merv was a manager at the Royal Bank and he and his family moved to Winnipeg when he was transferred in 1986. “My folks looked at each other and said, ‘There’s a good opportunity here with this tourism stuff.’ My dad continued to work for the bank for another 15 years while my mom built and ran the company from the basement of our home in East Kildonan. She had a telephone and a typewriter. Now we have about 25 full-time staff and 35 seasonal staff,” he says.
His parents haven’t been involved in the day-to-day operations of Frontiers North for a few years now and they’re just winding down their final duties — representing the company in the Pacific Rim for sales meetings with partners and resellers in China, Australia, Japan and Korea. John Gunter came on board in 2002, working in a marketing capacity before becoming general manager and then moving on to president and CEO. When the company started, it offered guided trips of Churchill and
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