Potential visitors from around the world are inquiring in record numbers about the islands, according to Northern BC Tourism. The tourism office says that they have had an explosion of information requests for the Queen Charlottes, and are quickly running out of tourist guides to give out to interested travelers.
"It has been crazy," said Billie-Joy Lacombe, who said they have had almost a thousand information requests from people around the globe, and that's just since December.
So why is the spotlight on the islands this year? Ms Lacombe said that it probably had something to do with the media attention, but that interest in the islands is really nothing new.
"People have always been interested in the Queen Charlotte Islands," she said, "anyone who's seen a picture, wants to go there."
Most of the requests are coming from Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, she said, but there have been many international requests as well.
Carolyn Hesseltine at the Queen Charlotte visitor info centre said that although it was a quiet winter, it's been a very busy spring.
"We've had 15-20 requests a day, by internet and phone," she said.
In the post-911 atmosphere, most of the tourists are coming from other parts of Canada, she said, Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. This year she expects many people will arrive by car, since there have been many people asking about ferries. Most are inquiring about camping, she added.