Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in winter. By comparison, relatively few Canadian cities have developed such local
winter facilities—their emphasis is still upon golf courses and green spaces mainly
for summer use—although cross-country ski routes are developed and maintained
in many areas of the more popular provincial and national parks. Edmonton is now
providing free snowboard and ski lessons in some river valley locations to encour-
age more people to use the outdoors in winter.
The development of snowmobiles has also brought more people out in winter to
enjoy this new sport, although there is increasing concern among landowners at the
damage caused by these machines in churning up the ground and scaring livestock.
Hence there is a real need for more dedicated and controlled areas devoted to the
sport. In other areas, more traditional forms of winter activities have been extended,
such as hunting in areas where there are still many wild animals, or ice-fishing on
frozen lakes of lakes or rivers. Travel by dog sleds or sleighs, once the only way
of moving in snowbound areas, has been transformed into a winter experience for
tourists. For example, the development of long races for slushers, or dog-sleds,
such as the gruelling cross-country Ididarod from Anchorage to Nome in Alaska,
provides a different type of winter competitive sporting event that brings many
tourists into small towns along the route. More generally, of course, the last half of
the twentieth century has seen a huge increase in the popularity of downhill skiing,
which has led to the huge expansion of many ski-resorts and towns in Alpine envi-
ronments or in hilly terrain near large cities. The best of these places have tried to
ensure that the emerging new ideas from Winter City principles are used to increase
the vitality and sustainability of these settlements
It is also worth noting how
competitive Winter Games
have been developed in
most countries or regions with long winters in order to encourage more participa-
tion in a range of winter sports. At a world scale the Winter Olympics has moved
from an essentially elite or essentially Alpine event of the mid twentieth century to
one that is now a multibillion dollar enterprise, with participants from countries in
most temperate and northern climates and with a worldwide television audience,
even though many of the events are still dominated by athletes from Scandinavian
and Alpine countries. Every four years the Winter Olympics moves to a different
location that is chosen by the International Olympic Committee from the competi-
tive bids from rival countries. Its growth and success has done much to popularize
winter sports. Moreover, the successful bidders usually need to massively increase
the numbers and quality of the facilities for the thousands of athletes that take part.
This provides a permanent legacy for the host winter city and an opportunity during
the Olympics themselves to showcase their other attractions to the world, provid-
ing a permanent boost to their tourist potential. For example, Calgary hosted the
15th Winter Olympics in 1988 after spending c$ 25 million to promote its bid. The
local organizing committee spent $ 98 million on a new ice hockey and figure skat-
ing rink, c$ 25 million on a local Canada Olympic Park to host ski-jumping and
luge runs, as well as c$ 103 million for an athletes' village in the university, which
included a $ 40 million dome arena for speed skating. Outside the city c$ 32 mil-
lion was spent on the downhill ski-racing centre at Nakiska and c$ 17 million on a
Nordic centre for ski racing in the nearby town of Canmore. The result of spend-
