Mr. Speaker, Heritage Canada has invited the provinces and territories to participate at Expo 2005, to be held from March to September 2005 in Aichi, Japan. Aichi Prefecture is about an hour train ride west of Tokyo, near the city of Nagoya. The theme of Expo 2005 is Nature's Wisdom.
Organizers anticipate that more than 15 million people will visit Expo 2005 over a six-month period and 1.5 million visitors are anticipated to visit the Canadian pavilion with some 90 percent of these visitors expected to be Japanese.
This exposition provides an excellent opportunity to market the Northwest Territories to key target audiences.
Over the past five years, the Japanese tourism market has grown substantially in the Northwest Territories. Last year alone, Mr. Speaker, Japanese tourists comprised approximately 24 percent of the total number of leisure tourists visiting the Northwest Territories and they contributed over $16 million to our economy.