Tourism and Community Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 181

However, this requires confronting difficult questions such as: What cultural
trade-offs do residents want to make in order to receive 'community develop-
ment' benefits ? How do diverse populations and minority ethnic groups get
to have a say about their cultural well-being or survival, given power differ-
entials and the heterogeneous nature of 'community' ? And what, then, is the
greater 'community good' that policymakers aspire to work towards, and
whose interests are being prioritized in the complex intersections of tourism
and CD (see also Chapter 7) ?
To illustrate, the mountain resort destination of Canmore, Canada, expe-
rienced runaway growth in the 1980s and early 1990s, until an extensive
community-based process involving a wide range of interests, including local
residents, was implemented to develop a growth management strategy. Out
of this arose eventually the Biosphere Institute (BI), a local non-governmen-
tal organization (NGO) that is playing a leading role in the community,
working on local capacity building, training and education related to sustain-
ability and climate change (Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley, 2011).
Among its many tasks, the Biosphere Institute teaches visitors about human-
wildlife interactions and appropriate environmental behaviors, trains volun-
teers to participate in this and other sustainability oriented initiatives, and
works with residents and schoolchildren to increase their learning and par-
ticipation in sustainability action in this mountain community. Registered
as a non-profit society in 1997 and awarded charitable status in 2003, it
works with all levels of government, industry, other non-profits, and the
general public in fulfilling its mission. Facilitated by resources provided by
local government (The Town of Canmore), the BI has initiated a number of
intergenerational programs that involve schoolchildren, teachers and resi-
dents, as well as local and area-based businesses such as taxi drivers and
other transportation providers that cater to locals and visitors. Among these
programs were an extensive 'anti-idle' campaign, and a door-to-door cam-
paign that applied community-based social marketing principles to inform
and involve residents in climate change action and resource conservation
within their homes and community (see Jamal & Watt, 2011).
Through its leadership, the BI is contributing to what might be seen as a
hybrid form of local governance for sustainable community development
that involves policymakers, the tourism industry and local businesses, as
well as an increasingly informed and involved base of residents, including
teachers, youth and children, among others. However, it should be noted that
the notion of 'community' is highly complicated here, too, as the resort des-
tination has been shaped by various mobilities over the years - rapid second
home growth and incoming amenity migrants, a growing resident popula-
tion of service providers catering to an expanding tourism sector, and ebbs
and flows of temporary and migrant workers. Close to 30% of the homes in
Canmore are owned by second-home residents, and the community's aging
volunteer base (seniors) are unable to meet the need for a greater volunteer