From Policy to research and back again - Conference in Ottawa May 5

This week I attended the first Canadian Rural Policy Conference in Ottawa on May 5th called "From Policy to Research and Back Again". It was a great gathering mixing researchers and policy makers from across the country in a day jam packed with sessions, panel discussions, posters and networking.

I gave a session and paper called "The Homogeneity Dilemma: Fine Tuning Supports for Rural Tourism" based on my observations of the tendency for one-size fits all supports for rural communities. Here is the abstract anyways, and I will be pursuing having it published in an upcoming version of the Journal of Rural and Community Development.

Despite the tendency to generalize about rural areas, they are not homogenous. Programs to support development in rural areas however tend to assume homogeneity and are often packaged for one-size fits all use by various communities. This paper will outline a typology of rural tourism destinations based on level of engagement ranging from those just beginning to pursue tourism to those managing its impacts. Using data from six years of field research in rural British Columbia, the paper illustrates how current government supports within the delivery and development system showcase deficiencies for some types of rural areas seeking to develop tourism. Overall findings suggest that there is a dominance of supports for communities that are seeking to expand tourism via marketing models, however those that are in the earliest steps, and those that are dealing with saturation issues are currently without adequate supports. The paper provides recommendations for enhanced program supports for rural areas to more fully explore tourism as a diversification option or as a tool for amenity based rural development.


I often think that the measure of success of much of my research is the extent that it influences policy or decision making (at any level). So, I have been interested in how to do that for about 10 years. The Tourism Research Innovation Project helped me to gain a better understanding of the world of the "other" (policy makers) and one of the most important things I learned was the need to build relationships of trust between researchers and those who can use our research. I don't view knowledge mobilization as a one way exchange from researchers to policy makers -but rather a dynamic exchange of information and priorities and in many ways, a collaborative effort to create change in areas that need it (like rural development).

It was a pleasure to be at this conference and hear that I am not off track in this line of thinking and that others share this perspective and have practices that I can use to help me in this goal. Keep posted for next year's gathering - I am assuming that calling it the first - will mean that there is a second to come.

Photo is of Dr. Bill Reimer (top) and then of the dialogue session at the end of the day.