Resources

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
45 OPA award A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Sustainab... file 10007 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 

» 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 

43 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 

42 Think Tank XIV The Development of a National Tourism Research Agenda ... file 6543 Jun 26, 2014

A national research agenda identifies the research priorities that need to be addressed to “inform future policy and service delivery” by government and “for use by academics and practitioners to stimulate research, partnerships and collabor...

Author: Leo Jago & Margaret Deery 

Year: 2014 

41 Think Tank XIV Welcoming Chinese Visitors and the Easternization of t... file 2618 Jun 26, 2014

Tourism academics, practitioners, governments and agencies around the world are in general agreement about the future of tourism in what commentators have tagged The Asian Century. Assuming demographic and economic conditions persist, the in...

Author: Patricia C. Johnson 

Year: 2014 

40 Think Tank XIV Leadership at the Nexus: Exploring the Connection betw... file 4099 Jun 26, 2014

The development of sustainable and competitive tourism destinations is contingent upon many factors including the creation of inclusive policy (Pforr, 2006), the development and implementation of strategic plans (Jordan, Vogt, Kruger, and Gr...

Author: Whitney Knollenberg & Nancy Gard McGehee 

Year: 2014 

39 Think Tank XIV Heritage Trails through Dolenjska and Bela krajina in ... file 4700 Jun 26, 2014

One of the beneficial methodologies for growing and developing a level of tourism which is sustainable and enhances the totality of local and regional environments is a multi-stakeholder approach to tourism development. In this paper, we pre...

Author: Marko Koscak 

Year: 2014 

38 Think Tank XIV Influence of Assets and Capital Structure on the Perfo... file 3595 Jun 26, 2014

The global economic and financial crisis could be seen as old news according to the UNWTO’s data on international tourist arrivals. Europe recorded a solid 5% growth in 2013, and Mediterranean countries performed even better with 6% growth i...

Author: Kir Kuščer & Domen Trobec 

Year: 2014 

37 Think Tank XIV Sustainable Tourism Mobility: Recommended Strategies f... file 4187 Jun 26, 2014

Transport is a vital and integral component of the tourism system yet it contributes the most emissions in tourism (Dubois, Peeters, Ceron, & Gössling, 2011; Peeters & Dubois, 2010). In line with the global concerns for sustainabilit...

Author: Diem-Trinh Le-Klähn 

Year: 2014 

36 Think Tank XIV Implementation and Governance of Hotel Chain's CSR pol... file 33800 Jun 26, 2014

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing importance in the tourism industry over the past two decades, making it a central aspect of many business strategies. Many international hotel corporations have integrated CSR polic...

Author: Dagmar Lund-Durlacher & Carolin Brewi 

Year: 2014 

35 Think Tank XIV Residents' Support for Tourism from the Standpoint of ... file 3789 Jun 26, 2014

Therefore, being of a different nature than sustainability pillars, political sustainability (Mihalic et al., 2012) is a requirement for sustainable tourism development (Edgell, DelMastro Allen, Smith & Swanson, 2008; UNWTO, 2004). This ...

Author: Tanja Mihalič, Tina Šegota, Ljubica Knežević Cvelbar, Kir Kuščer 

Year: 2014 

34 Think Tank XIV Tropical Communities as Resources for Tourism or Touri... file 48598 Jun 26, 2014

The purpose of this paper is to review the barriers to sustainable tourism development faced by rural and developing regions and to explore the notion of tourism and its potential contribution to community well-being, with a focus on Flora’s...

Author: Laurie Murphy, Gianna Moscardo & Anna Blackman 

Year: 2014 

33 Think Tank XIV Assessing Samui Island's Sustainable Tourism Policies ... file 11122 Jun 26, 2014

Since 2009, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) promoted sustainable tourism practices through its – 7 Greens Concept, which is similar to the main global trends towards sustainable tourism. The 7 Greens Concept includes Green Heart, Gre...

Author: Attama Nilnoppakun, Krissada Pornprapa, Nattapong Boonlue & Kreagrit Ampawat 

Year: 2014 

32 Think Tank XIV Can "Slow Travel" Contribute to Sustainable Tourism? file 5791 Jun 27, 2014

Slow travel as a research field has increased in popularity in the last decade. The concept started to gain attention through online communities, and tourism researchers have become interested in the possible benefits that slow travel may ha...

Author: Tina Roenhovde Tiller 

Year: 2014 

31 Think Tank XIV Exploring Policy, Politics and Governance through Stak... file 5283 Jun 27, 2014

This paper looks at the development of an ecotrekking industry on the Kokoda Track and demonstrates how the use of participatory methods in community based tourism can align two different “regimes of truth” (that of the community and of the ...

Author: Stephen Wearing, Paul Chatterton & Amy Reggers 

Year: 2014 

30 Think Tank XIV Exploring the potential of Community Based Ecotourism ... file 5179 Jun 27, 2014

Development in developing countries often results in mass land-use change and subsequent increase in greenhouse gas emission by deforestation or forest degradation. For instance, approximately a-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions was a...

Author: Stephen Wearing, Paul Chatterton, Amy Reggers & Hanna Sakata 

Year: 2014 

29 Think Tank XIV Current Global Initiatives to Address the Sustainabili... file 5075 Jul 07, 2014

A number of ongoing and new initiatives aim at the tourism sector with the intention of improving sustainability within the sector and through tourism in other economic and social activities. Dirk's presentation reflects on UNWTO’s position ...

Author: Dirk Glaesser 

Year: 2014 

28 Think Tank XV A novel review approach on adventure tourism scholarship file 1563 Jul 24, 2015

As a niche market, adventure tourism has been developing rapidly in many regions and territories, evidenced by increasing number of participants and intensive growth of adventure tourism products (Adventure Travel Trade Association, 2013; T...

Author: Mingming Chen, Deborah Edward, Simon Darcy 

Year: 2015 

27 Think Tank XV Enhancing stakeholders’ participation for sustainable ... file 2091 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism is a fragile industry with multiple stakeholders. Globally, the desire of its stakeholders is to gain more benefits and eliminate negative impacts on resources that support the industry, particularly in protected areas (PAs) such as ...

Author: Richie Wandwi 

Year: 2015 

26 Think Tank XV Deconstruction of Man-nature Dialogue Nexus: A Critica... file 8812 Jul 27, 2015

The relationship between man and nature dates back to the millennia. The intimacy of man-nature interaction increased with decreasing healthy nature, as man’s insatiable desire to know and control nature as a commodity becomes more dynamical...

Author: Michael Kweku Commeh 

Year: 2015 

AAA