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RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Alison M. Gill & Peter W. Williams
School/Work Place : Simon Fraser University, Canada
Contact : agill@sfu.ca
Year : 2014

The nature of a resort will reflect the varying coalitions, partnerships and discourses that emerge from the relative power of actors within the dominant political regime (Gill 2007). In this paper we examine the evolving discourse around the implementation of a governance approach to sustainability in the resort of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Despite introducing an innovative comprehensive sustainable resort policy in 2005 that has gained considerable global attention from other resorts for its apparent success in translating the ‘guiding fiction’ of sustainability into action (Gill & Williams 2008), recent changes in local government have resulted in a significant deviation from Whistler’s path towards sustainability. To understand the drivers of change we apply a path creation lens drawn from evolutionary economic theory. This approach focuses on the role of human agency and offers insights into the changing discourses and politics of the resort. The research for this study is drawn from various long-term community-based field research projects in the resort employing multi-method approaches that have included analysis of official community documents and reports; newspaper reports; key informant interviews (both formal and informal); and participant observation at community meetings. Following a brief overview of the path creation approach our discussion seeks to understand how and why shifting power relations in Whistler have resulted in a deviation from the new path towards sustainability.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
11 Think Tank XIV Hospitality of Sustainable Tourism Encounters: Experie... file 3634 Jun 26, 2014

Global tourism is, at least to some extent, based upon to the vast inequalities between wealthy and impoverished (Cole & Morgan 2010, xv). Neglecting, or actively forgetting, the legacy of colonialism and the modern forms of economic and...

Author: Emily Höckert 

Year: 2014 

» Think Tank XIV Sustainability and the Politics of Place in Resort Des... file 3017 Jun 26, 2014

The nature of a resort will reflect the varying coalitions, partnerships and discourses that emerge from the relative power of actors within the dominant political regime (Gill 2007). In this paper we examine the evolving discourse around th...

Author: Alison M. Gill & Peter W. Williams 

Year: 2014 

9 Think Tank XIV A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on Sustainable Tourism... file 7325 Jun 26, 2014

In this study, I take up the task to work towards a theoretical and methodological framework that allows using sustainability as a threshold concept for critically evaluating the assumptions embedded in both tourism management theory and pra...

Author: José-Carlos García-Rosell 

Year: 2014 

8 Think Tank XIV A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Sustainab... file 7202 Jun 26, 2014

Emerging tourist destinations can challenge ecological, economic, social, and quality of life barriers. These issues draw attention towards the consequences of increasing complexity that are often found as a tourist marketing system grows an...

Author: Sarah Duffy & Larry Dwyer 

Year: 2014 

OPA: 2014 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

7 Think Tank XIV Tourism Concessions in National Parks: Neo-liberal Too... file 4803 Jun 26, 2014

For the tourism sector the government aims to “Grow the number of new business opportunities on public conservation land in order to deliver increased economic prosperity and conservation gain” (New Zealand Government, 2012: 23). In relation...

Author: Valentina Dinica 

Year: 2014 

6 Think Tank XIV The Prospects for Sustainable Tourism in Vanuatu in th... file 3292 Jun 26, 2014

This paper explores the feasibility for Vanuatu of implementing several key international recommendations for policy-makers for the sustainable development (SD) of national tourism sectors (UNEP-WTO, 2005). It shows that the remarkable fragm...

Author: Valentina Dinica 

Year: 2014 

5 Think Tank XIV Stakeholder Collaboration and Contestation in Tourism ... file 3347 Jun 26, 2014

Since Timor-Leste gained its independence in 2002, tourism has been promoted by both government and NGOs as a means to create jobs, build businesses, create income for national and local economics and improve regional economic imbalances (Ti...

Author: Sara Currie & Lindsay Turner 

Year: 2014 

4 Think Tank XIV The Bukit Jalil Legacy: Local Residents' Perceptions o... file 5684 Jun 26, 2014

This paper explores local population’s perceptions of the development of the Bukit Jalil area after the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games. The work on which this study is based is important because it provides a fundamental insight for th...

Author: Rui Qi Chong & Paolo Mura 

Year: 2014 

3 Think Tank XIV Psychological Empowerment as Good Policy for Governanc... file 5263 Jun 26, 2014

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential impact psychological empowerment can have on sustainable tourism policy objectives, including improving resident attitudes toward tourism, enhancing destination competitiveness, and maint...

Author: B. Bynum Boley & Nancy Gard McGehee 

Year: 2014 

2 Think Tank XIV The Emergence of Cross-border Governance Structures: t... file 5256 Jun 26, 2014

It is well recognized that the local borders of a tourism destination are not easy to delineate as they are constantly changing through complex practices and discourses due to historical, political, and economic factors. In fact, recent stud...

Author: Dani Blasco, Jaume Guia & Lluís Prats 

Year: 2014 

1 Think Tank XIV Exploring Youth Perspectives on Quality of Life and To... file 2712 Jun 26, 2014

The concept of Quality of Life (QoL) is implicit in conceptualisations of tourism, especially those used to develop and guide tourism policy and planning. At the individual level it is assumed that travel offers a number of different ways to...

Author: Anna Blackman, Gianna Moscardo, Andrea Schurmann & Laurie Murphy 

Year: 2014 

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