OKANAGAN GEOTOURISM PROJECT
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Okanagan Geotourism Initiative takes form
Emerging partnership builds on National Geographic’s geotourism model March 16, 2014
Vernon, British Columbia - The Watershed Intelligence Network (WIN) is facilitating community partnerships in order to strengthen geotourism in the Okanagan region of British Columbia and Washington State. The Okanagan Geotourism Initiative includes collaboration with similar global efforts helped by the National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations (CSD).
Geotourism is defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.
Project director Don Elzer anticipates that this initiative will rollout over the course of a decade and as it does, it will be strengthened by other similar efforts found in other parts of the world.
The initiative will be encouraging the tourism sector and communities to expand efforts to protect and rehabilitate core natural and cultural assets in the Okanagan Valley and to consider the valley as part of a wider Columbia River Basin, which includes both Canada and the United States.
“We need to realize that our environment here is intrinsically linked to a vast number of ecosystems and species that are not held into place by political geography,” said Elzer.
Elzer says the project will unfold in small steps and will emphasize the development of stories, events and ideas linked to geotourism in the Okanagan Valley. As public awareness expands, a “Geotourism Stewardship Council” will be established which will be guided by a “Geotourism Charter”.
“We’ll be bringing attention to the risks that we face here such as the loss of biodiversity. At the same time we’ll be sharing stories about places, history and the people who are making a difference in our rapidly changing region.”
Already the project is in discussion with National Geographic. Helping to guide the project are tools created by National Geographic's former Center for Sustainable Destinations, dedicated to protecting the world’s distinctive places through wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship.
To further this mission, National Geographic departments— Maps, Travel, Advertising, and others—collaborate on a contract basis with allied organizations and destinations, both globally and locally.
Elzer suggests that every decade or so, tourism needs to redefine what it is.
“We see a lot of tourism development happening here, we see more resorts and hotels being constructed; more residential developments are happening all supported by the idea of an Okanagan lifestyle – however in order to deliver this idea, we need to protect the landscape here, and we need to remember the stories about this place.”
“While these core values need to be strengthened, so do the people and services delivering these core values,” said Elzer.
The hundred mile economy plays an important role in geotourism, supporting locally grown food, and handmade items, it seeks to insure that fair value is offered on all things “local” in an effort to strengthen neighborhood economies.
“We are seeking to stimulate sustainable tourism in the Okanagan and in Canada. The initiative will help the public recognize that destinations should remain unspoiled for future generations—and we’ll instill the importance of protecting a place's character.”
Geotourism also takes a principle from its more narrow, nature-focused ecotourism cousin — that tourism revenue should promote conservation—and this extends to culture and history as well, that is, all distinctive assets of a “place”.
WIN’s role will be to generate editorial and digital content for project leaders and partners and then to broadcast that content regionally, nationally and internationally in an effort to strengthen geotourism in the Okanagan.
“The Okanagan will benefit in so many ways as this world-class collaboration develops,” said Elzer.
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For more information about the Okanagan Geotourism Initiative contact:
The Watershed Intelligence Network at: mediaservices@uniserve.com
Or call Don Elzer at the Discovery Centre at 250.547.9812.
Sidebar:
About Geotourism
Emerging partnership builds on National Geographic geotourism model
The word geo-tourism, was introduced publicly in the United States within a 2002 report by the Travel Industry Association of America and National Geographic Traveler magazine. National Geographic senior editor Jonathan B. Tourtellot and his wife, Sally Bensusen, coined the term in 1997 in response to requests for a term and concept more encompassing than ecotourism and sustainable tourism.
This past month Tourtellot outlined the opportunities that were emerging as the Okanagan joins a collection of similar geotourism efforts from around the world.
“The destination-based geotourism approach may be a way to join back together what the 9-11 attacks tore asunder 13 years ago: an easygoing U.S.-Canadian border. You still need passports to cross, but these geotourism projects focus on the destination as a whole, regardless of bisection by the political boundary,” said Tourtellot.
“Heart of the Continent” is a new National Geographic Geotourism MapGuide program just launched in the border lakes region of northeastern Minnesota and adjacent portions of western Ontario, as reported on the U.S. side and the Canadian side. Supervised by the international Heart of the Continent Partnership, the project will create a co-branded geotourism printed map and website for the triangular area reaching from Thunder Bay, Ontario, west to International Falls, Minnesota, and then south to Duluth, also including Isle Royale.
This marks the third U.S.-Canada transborder geotourism project, following Crown of the Continent (Montana-Alberta-B.C.) and Lakes to Locks (N.Y.-Quebec). As the Okanagan begins its journey as the fourth, Tourtellot recalled one of the earliest MapGuide projects that bridged a different, tougher border, linking Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.
“I think, it yielded an excellent detailed print map of the Sonoran Desert but lacked a strong supervisory Geotourism Stewardship Council that would keep the program going”.
Geotourism continues to grow, currently in Alaska, a statewide group convened by the University of Alaska has launched a geotourism initiative and posted an Alaskan Geotourism Charter. The group is now reviewing ideas for bringing tourism benefits to Alaskan gateway communities. Many feel bypassed by tourists either on cruise-line package tours or transferring by charter flights to high-end wilderness lodges.
Don Elzer can see a comparison between British Columbia and Alaska.
“When our governments moved sawmills out of small forest dependent communities, tourism was seen as the great promise for restoring local economies, that promise has never been delivered – geotourism offers a chance to revisit the idea of renewing these communities”.
For Jonathan B. Tourtellot, seventeen years later, the demand is still an international one
“I just finished a geotourism speaking tour in the Philippines, invited by a Manila-based event planner who believes Philippine tourism has lost a sense of identity. Two lectures in Manila and one each with press coverage in Baguio and Legazpi introduced the geotourism approach to some 3,500 Filipino university students and a variety of professional practitioners”.
Geotourism projects like the one in the Okanagan will assist in projecting an accurate and detailed inventory of tourism attractions and activities in the region. Tourism efforts are developed in partnership with participating members of the local community in order to:
- Create markets for sustainable tourism choices to foreign and domestic tourists
- Increase local incomes
- Build local knowledge and pride
- Produce economic incentives for the conservation and preservation of geotourism assets
This approach will help local residents learn about their significant tourism resources, stimulate local business growth through increased tourism, and work in synergy with local tourism promotional efforts to effectively market and position the destination.
If you would like to learn more about the National Geographic Geotourism MapGuide Program visit: www.destinationcenter.org
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For more information about the Okanagan Geotourism Initiative contact: The Watershed Intelligence Network at: mediaservices@uniserve.com
Or call Don Elzer at the Discovery Centre at 250.547.9812.
The National Geographic Geotourism Charter
As a model for geotourism, the National Geographic Society has drawn up a "Geotourism Charter" based on 13 principles:
1. Integrity of place: Enhance geographical character by developing and improving it in ways distinctive to the local, reflective of its natural and cultural heritage, so as to encourage market differentiation and cultural pride.
2. International codes: Adhere to the principles embodied in the World Tourism Organization’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and the Principles of the Cultural Tourism Charter established by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
3. Market selectivity: Encourage growth in tourism market segments most likely to appreciate, respect, and disseminate information about the distinctive assets of the locale.
4. Market diversity: Encourage a full range of appropriate food and lodging facilities, so as to appeal to the entire demographic spectrum of the geotourism market and so maximize economic resiliency over both the short and long term.
5. Tourist satisfaction: Ensure that satisfied, excited geotourists bring new vacation stories home and encourage friends to experience the same thing, thus providing continuing demand for the destination.
6. Community involvement: Base tourism on community resources to the extent possible, encouraging local small businesses and civic groups to build partnerships to promote and provide a distinctive, honest visitor experience and market their locales effectively. Help businesses develop approaches to tourism that build on the area’s nature, history and culture, including food and drink, artisanry, performance arts, etc.
7. Community benefit: Encourage micro- to medium-size enterprises and tourism business strategies that emphasize economic and social benefits to involved communities, especially poverty alleviation, with clear communication of the destination stewardship policies required to maintain those benefits.
8. Protection and enhancement of destination appeal: Encourage businesses to sustain natural habitats, heritage sites, aesthetic appeal, and local culture. Prevent degradation by keeping volumes of tourists within maximum acceptable limits. Seek business models that can operate profitably within those limits. Use persuasion, incentives, and legal enforcement as needed.
9. Land use: Anticipate development pressures and apply techniques to prevent undesired overdevelopment and degradation. Contain resort and vacation-home sprawl, especially on coasts and islands, so as to retain a diversity of natural and scenic environments and ensure continued resident access to waterfronts. Encourage major self-contained tourism attractions, such as large-scale theme parks and convention centers unrelated to character of place, to be sited in needier locations with no significant ecological, scenic, or cultural assets.
10. Conservation of resources: Encourage businesses to minimize water pollution, solid waste, energy consumption, water usage, landscaping chemicals, and overly bright nighttime lighting. Advertise these measures in a way that attracts the large, environmentally sympathetic tourist market.
11. Planning: Recognize and respect immediate economic needs without sacrificing long-term character and the geotourism potential of the destination. Where tourism attracts in-migration of workers, develop new communities that themselves constitute a destination enhancement. Strive to diversify the economy and limit population influx to sustainable levels. Adopt public strategies for mitigating practices that are incompatible with geotourism and damaging to the image of the destination.
12. Interactive interpretation: Engage both visitors and hosts in learning about the place. Encourage residents to promote the natural and cultural heritage of their communities so tourists gain a richer experience and residents develop pride in their locales.
13. Evaluation: Establish an evaluation process to be conducted on a regular basis by an independent panel representing all stakeholder interests, and publicize evaluation results.
Geotourism Around the Planet
Here are a few links to other geotourism initiatives:
For more information about the Okanagan Geotourism Initiative contact the Watershed Intelligence Network at: mediaservices@uniserve.com or call Don Elzer at the Discovery Centre at 250.547.9812.
