Viking Trail Tourism Initiative
Backgrounder

The Canada-Newfoundland Agreement for the Economic Development Component of the Canadian Fisheries Adjustment and Restructuring Initiative (EDC) is investing $620,750 in Norstead: A Grand Encampment, a Viking Millennium project undertaken by the Viking Trail Tourism Association. EDC funding will assist with:

• construction of the event staging area;

• creative elements: re-enactors, artisans, designers and engineers, writers storylines and scripts;

• site communications, washrooms, waste disposal, village operations;

• travel costs for participating re-enactors.

The Viking Trail Tourism Association is a non-profit organization which oversees various aspects of tourism development and promotion in the area from Deer Lake to St. Anthony on the island, and from L’Anse au Clair to Battle Harbour in Labrador.

Norstead: A Grand Encampment is an event developed as part of the Vikings!1000 Years, a project designed to mark the 1000^th anniversary of the Vikings’ arrival at L’Anse aux Meadows. A specially created Viking port of trade will be open to visitors from July 17 to September 8. Visitors will experience the daily lives of the Norse as it would have existed a millennium ago. At the peak of activity the site will be inhabited by 100 re-enactors, about half of whom will be residents of the area; the other half will be international re-enactors from around the world.

Norstead will operate for eight weeks between mid-July and mid-September 2000, with a different theme each week such as Viking weddings and battles. A market place will be constructed and accessible and there will be space for local vendors to offer crafts and food for sale.

Throughout the year 2000 the province will focus tourism activities under the theme Vikings! 1000 Years. Make the Journey. Projected visitation statistics for the next three years include an increase of up to 20,000 visitors to L’Anse aux Meadows, and 50,000 to Gros Morne National Park. Norstead will be a major element of the Vikings! 1000 Years event.

The Viking Millennium celebration is the culmination of the Viking Trail Tourism Accord signed in September 1994 by the Viking Trail Tourism Association, ACOA, Canadian Heritage, Human Resources Development Canada and the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation.