Reminder about the upcoming rural tourism conference in BC

Thompson Rivers University, Vancouver Island University and the University of Northern BC are pleased to extend this reminder of the Call for Submissions for the Rural Tourism Conference 2011 - April 19-21st in 108 Mile House (Hills Health Ranch) in BC. We would particularly like to encourage operators and leaders in rural communities who can speak to their own initiatives to submit a session. Delegates are keen to hear about who is doing what out there to develop tourism in rural communities.

Presentation options include: posters, oral presentations, experiential workshops or panel discussions (see attachment for details). Potential audience members include those working in: community economic development, tourism marketing/management, government, non profit and academia.

NOTE: - We have also added a sponsorship package to the site for those of you who want to partner with the organizers. And, for rural delegates - we have provided an application form for a subsidy to attend the conference.

Conference Theme: BROADENING OUR HORIZONS: AMENITIES, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COLLABORATION

Location: Hills Health Ranch, 108 Mile House, British Columbia

Date: April 19-21, 2011

Conference Website: www.ruraltourismconference.com

Deadline for workshop abstract submissions is January 30, 2011.

Feel free to share this announcement widely with colleagues.

Collaborative cultural tourism - the Cedar Yellowpoint Artisan Association

Connecting visitors to products in rural areas can be challenging at the best of times. When it comes to arts and culture, the challenge can be even more difficult as rural areas are perhaps more known for natural tourism opportunities. But arts and culture DOES exist in rural areas, and operators out there are devising innovative ways to promote themselves and work together to connect to visitors.

I was fortunate to blend all of my worlds together this November by taking part in the Cedar Yellowpoint Artisans Christmas Tour on Nov 18 - 21. While the work side of me focuses on rural communities, sustainability and tourism, the leisure side of me is focused on arts, horses and farm life. This year, I decided to open the Broody Rooster Guesthouse and Gallery at my farm, where I display artwork, teach courses and sell gifts for six months of the year when I am at VIU, and the other six months it will be a weekly vacation rental. In order to gain profile, I applied to be a part of the Cedar Yellowpoint Artisans Association Christmas Tour, and was fortunate to get in.

While the weekend did have snow and some wicked weather, I would have to say for me - it was a resounding success. Having the opportunity to open my doors to the public, meet with customers, talk art and horses and get new ideas was great. Business was great, I sold 5 paintings, had lots of interest in the spring workshops and classes and received commissions.

I am thankful for this opportunity and recognize the value of collaborative marketing like this event for other regions of BC where artisans may not have access to this sort of an opportunity. I have decided to write a case study on this initiative using data collected from visitors at this years tour - it will be profiled in a chapter called "Cultural tourism in the rural context" in an upcoming Tourism Essentials manual (this spring - and I will be sure to post how to access it).

Thanks to the Artisans Association, in particular Justine and Grant at Yellowpoint Cranberries - for all your support, ideas and efforts.

Fresh Outlook on Sustainability

On November 15-18th, the Fresh Outlook Foundation hosting a conference on "Building Sustainable Communities" in Kelowna, BC. I had the good fortune to attend and participate in a panel with Andrew Moore (T'Sou-ke Centre for Sustainable Living) and moderated by Robert Fine (Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission). Dan Wilson, from the Whistler Centre for Sustainability was also scheduled to be on the panel but unfortunately could not make it due to illness.

Our panel was on Building a Green Economy and I spoke to some of the insights gained with Lea Thuot and our team on the Fostering Innovation in Sustainable Tourism project. Small and medium sized enterprises in tourism are already doing some incredible things to make their operations sustainable. In line with the diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers), our team suggests that by identifying these early adopters and profiling their work, we can all learn more about how to move further towards sustainability.

This conference was extremely well organized by the organization and is worth the expenditure for audiences such as community leaders and NFP associations. They offered well structured debates (on the AB Tar sands), panels, workshops and presentations mixed with plenty of space for networking. Add this one to your list for next year and check out the great work of this organization in the meantime.

Call for submissions for the rural tourism conference is open!

Well, after a few teleconferences and some great discussions with colleagues from Thompson Rivers University and the University of Northern BC, we are happy to announce that the call for submissions for the upcoming rural tourism conference is now open.

We will use the conference website - www.ruraltourismconference.com for all our updates and the details on the call are all located on the site as well.

We are hoping for a strong turnout of diverse folks that are involved in tourism development in BC's rural areas and beyond. There are opportunities for presentations, panels, workshops or other innovative formats.

Share widely with your other colleagues and we will keep you posted on registration details as we move forward.

Learning and sharing at the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation conference

Last week, after the Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference, I quickly jumped in a plane to travel to the Canadian Rural Revitalization Conference held in Brandon Manitoba from the 13-16th. Both national conferences that are of interest to me in the same week - not easy!

This was a great gathering of folks ranging from community economic development agents to policy makers to academics. All of them share the future and vitality of rural areas in common.

The sessions were great - and built on the theme of "On the Bright Side". We too often pitch rural areas with doom and gloom, ideas of crisis or conflict. I liked the theme and it allowed us to focus a bit more on solutions and things that are working for rural Canada. The keynotes encouraged us to question our assumptions and to think about new models and review the evidence for some of the methods we are currently using in rural areas.

I made two presentations at the conference - the first was titled "Gaining a rural lens through rural immersion experiences" (with colleague Dan McDonald). In this presentation, we advocated for more place-based pedagogy and for introducing rural realities to university students in all disciplines to prepare them for professional practice. Based on our experience conducting immersion tours since 2005 across rural BC and AB, we highlighted the benefits to students and also the lessons learned for those who want to apply it elsewhere. To view the presentation, CLICK HERE

The second presentation I gave was sharing the results of a recent project that I did with Kelly Whitney-Squire (Acadia) for the Canadian Rural and Cooperatives Secretariat. The title was "Amenity-based rural development: Moving forward with a typology and common language". In this presentation, I highlighted some of the core concepts to amenity based rural development and introduced the typology of Canada's rural amenities that was done in the study. To view this presentation and the typology, CLICK HERE

Conferences can be great venues to meet folks, share ideas and get your creative ideas flowing. I came back from these with all of them. At this morning's conference call on the upcoming rural tourism conference for BC - we came up with ideas to make the April conference even better - so keep tuned for more as we are just getting the call ready to go out.

New ways of engaging residents in tourism planning

Last week, the Travel and Tourism Research Association held a conference in Quebec City to bring together researchers from across the country. I was attending to learn and also to make a presentation titled "Realigning tourism development research to support communities in transition: the potential role of participatory rural appraisal methods". Essentially, the message I was carrying was that researchers need to be using more participatory methods to get residents engaged IN research activities for tourism planning. Based on our application of the participatory rural appraisal method (PRA) in four communities in BC since 2006, I advocate that this is one we should be using more of in North America.

Many times, rural areas seek information on what their assets are, what their tourism potential is, or how to address issues. This research, in the past, is often conducted by outsiders - either researchers or consultants and in the end, a report - the traditional format of sharing results - is prepared and given back to the community. These often make their way into plans which are done by a small group of people within the community who are seen to be involved in tourism. While this has been useful for many, for other areas - these reports do not often reflect the input or desires of a wider spectrum of community stakeholders and as such, they are often difficult to implement.

The PRA process is research conducted WITH rather than FOR a community. It has been used a lot in the international scene in developing countries in areas such as health, education and agriculture. When I first became aware of it at Michigan State during my PhD, I wondered why this wasn't being used more in tourism development. Hence, we have piloted and learned about how it works in rural areas of BC for tourism development.

To view the presentation - CLICK HERE

Rural Tourism Conference slated for April - mark your calendars!

Well, the Rural Tourism Conference is slated to continue so mark your calendars for April 19-21st, 2011 and plan to travel to 108 Mile House to the conference venue at Hills Health Ranch. The steering committee has met a few times and will be posting more details on the conference theme soon but in the meantime plan to attend.

How is this conference different from other tourism conferences and why should you attend? This conference focuses on sharing knowledge and useful applications that are intended for those working in tourism within a rural context. The emphasis is on education and network creation in a rural learning environment where operators, community leaders, educators and students are all in attendance and equal participants. If you are interested in attending a gathering of the minds with people who understand your reality and who are coming up with solutions that may work to advance tourism in rural areas - this conference is worth the trip. Expect a couple of days of talks, workshops, hands on sessions and socializing. Leave with new insights, innovative ideas and a network of folks you can call upon after the conference is done.

The conference is being co-hosted by three academic partners, all from the Tourism Research Innovation Project - Thompson Rivers University, University of Northern BC and Vancouver Island University. We will have our students involved in the planning and will be inviting participation from other organizations to play a role as we move forward.

I plan to organize a traveling conference prior to the conference where operators and students will travel together to various venues in the region learning about topics that enhance the competitiveness of small and medium sized businesses. The funding application will go in soon but my intent is to provide a subsidy for operators to enable them to participate. More on this as I get more details but if you are keen and available from April 13 to the 20th (last three days at the conference), let me know.

More to come - stay tuned and I will post the website with more details as soon as we have them - for now though, mark your calendar as this one is sure to sell out.