How to stop a gold rush

IN THIS EMAIL

An excerpt from our July/August cover story showcasing examples of regenerative tourism across Canada
Why travel writer Diane Selkirk is rethinking how she covers tourism
A Q&A with Destination Canada’s Gracen Chungath on the future of tourism in Canada
Michelle Valberg on the magic of photographing Canada’s North
Upcoming trips with Canadian Geographic Adventures

How to stop a gold rush

The new movement building flourishing tourism hubs — one sustainable example at a time

By Diane Selkirk

Photo: Destination Canada

Something weird was happening in the small mountain town of Rossland, B.C. In 2020, as the pandemic dragged on, the outdoor adventure mecca was thriving — yet few tourists were to be found. The West Kootenay community on B.C.’s famed “powder highway” is known for its hiking, biking and skiing, but even as visits plummeted, real estate was booming. And instead of closing, new businesses were opening, including the Rossberry Hill Bistro, whose menu boasts local ingredients, and the Wild Turkey Inn, a 1905 high Victorian-style heritage home that’s been painstakingly restored. You could say Rossland was undergoing its second gold rush. The first — when the discovery of rich gold deposits sparked an actual gold rush that saw Rossland become the premier mining centre of North America — peaked in 1897, with the town’s population soaring to 7,000. By 1929 it was all over. Mines unprofitable and abandoned, the number of residents plummeted to a mere 2,100. The boom had officially bust, and many businesses shuttered.

Rossland Mayor Kathy Moore can’t help but see that first gold rush as a cautionary tale. The town’s colourful history, remote location and natural beauty combine to make Rossland an enticing destination, and Moore can pinpoint exactly when she realized that only the townspeople could save Rossland from a second boom-bust cycle. It was 2007, not long after Red Mountain, the much-loved volunteer-run ski hill that the Sinixt people call kmarkn or “smooth top,” had been sold to a private investment group. Within months, the group proposed developing a golf course in the hills above the town — directly atop the community’s watershed. “That got people’s attention,” Moore says. The community was told there would be no environmental risks; however, a group of local physicians soon raised concerns over the potential danger of golf course herbicides leaching into the water. “We realized we needed to decide for ourselves what we wanted,” she says.

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Photo: Diane Selkirk

Part of the solution

By Diane Selkirk

Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, as worrisome stories about environmental degradation, gentrification and over-tourism were emerging from destinations including Iceland, Hawaii, Venice and even Banff (mostly on busy summer days), I started to wonder what role I, as a travel writer, was playing in supporting such an unbalanced industry. It seemed like travellers (and travel editors) kept returning to the same bucket-list locations—even as those places were losing many of the qualities that made them special. Meanwhile, heaps of lesser-known places were busy trying to figure out what they needed to do in order to attract visitors of their own.

Every place, it seemed, wanted to become the next Venice, even if Venice was no longer happy about being Venice.

Looking for solutions, I came across models for regenerative tourism. The problem was many of the examples focused on places that were already in environmental or social crisis, and ideas like planting coral or limiting visitors didn’t seem transferable. Then I visited two towns in Mexico.

San Miguel de Allende is a small city in Mexico’s central highlands that’s been topping ‘best places to visit’ lists for years—but when I arrived in February 2022, tourists hadn’t yet returned. So instead of feeling like a thriving community, it felt like a very pretty, and very empty, theme park version of a colonial Mexican town. In contrast, nearby Guanajuato City was buzzing. The squares were full, the restaurants were open and music was echoing through the streets. There was more grit, but it was a place that was clearly lived in and loved by locals.

This was when one of the more important aspects of regenerative tourism became clear to me. At some point, as tourism became a bigger part of local economies, towns and businesses began putting the perceived needs of travellers ahead of community members. While destination management organizations and tourist boards were measuring success by how much money tourists brought in, no one was paying attention to what visitors were actually costing communities.

And those costs can be high. Unmanaged tourism can damage traditional cultures, increase the price of housing, destroy ecosystems, stress infrastructure and create underemployment. It also degrades the experience of visitors, in part because locals grow to resent them.

I believe most travellers don’t want people and ecosystems to suffer just so we can have a holiday. But we’ve been sold the idea that when there’s more stuff for tourists to do, more tourists will come and more money will trickle down to the locals. What we’re learning is this style of tourism isn’t sustainable; it uses places up, and doesn’t protect or preserve them.

Understanding this made me rethink my job. My goal now is to tell readers how to find the kinds of places where the needs of the people and land come first. This doesn’t mean that guests are an afterthought. Instead, regenerative tourism means the entire community has made decisions about tourism together—and they’ve found ways to ensure tourism enhances what they have. It also means that if you visit a place like Guanajuato City, or Rossland B.C., or Fogo Island, N.L., when you return in five months, or five years, it will have been so carefully managed that the people you met will still be there, and the things you loved about it will have been preserved and protected.

This is a style of travel I can feel good about championing—and includes the sort of experiences I want to have myself.

MORE REGENERATIVE TOURISM

Q&A: Destination Canada’s Gracen Chungath on the future of regenerative tourism in Canada

Regenerative travel is defined as a kind of tourism that leaves a place better off, something that can play an important role in the future of Canadian tourism, says Gracen Chungath. As senior vice-president of destination development for Destination Canada, the Crown corporation tasked with promoting tourism in Canada, Chungath is developing a nation-wide strategy for regenerative tourism. To create a sustainable future for tourism, she says, it’s important to recognize that each place is unique, so communities must come together and identify their needs, opportunities and challenges.

By Diane Selkirk

Canada’s tourism enlightenment

“It’s hard to work against Mother Nature, and it costs,” says Dave Cowen, CEO of the Butchart Gardens. We’re backstage at the iconic Vancouver Island attraction, learning about the facility’s commitment to sustainability, from water conservation and soil renewal to building an industrial recycling program that deals with the waste of over one million visitors a year. I’m on a field trip for attendees of Victoria’s IMPACT Sustainability and Tourism Conference, where Canada’s tourism stakeholders gather to address the issues that challenge the leisure market everywhere: climate change, the pandemic, reconciliation, supply chain demands, shifting labour forces, consumer trends, and disruptive technology. Baked into the conference’s manifesto is a positive commitment: “We’re not waiting for the world to change. We must change the world.”

By Robin Esrock

EXPLORE PODCAST

The magic of photographing Canada’s North

Michelle Valberg’s career as a photographer and explorer has spanned most parts of our globe and this great nation of ours. Her work is regularly featured in leading magazines and media around the world, including Canadian Geographic magazine, where she is Photographer-in-Residence.

There is a very good chance you’ve seen her work, even if you’re not aware of it. Her series of wildlife portraits of bears have been featured on Canadian stamps. And her iconic image of an Inuit drum dancer is on the coin by the Royal Canadian Mint commemorating the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

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