How Can Mountain Tourism Embrace Sustainability? Through Tourist-Operator Collaboration [2019]
Editor’s Note - Between the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons, over 9.2 million visitors found themselves at one of Parks Canada’s seven mountain parks - that’s a lot! With increasing tourism and operations surrounding the industry, how do we keep up with the traffic while maintaining positive impact? In this article from Elizabeth Halpenny, she suggests that sustainability in the industry and on our mountains relies on tourist-operator collaboration in educating and providing opportunities for change.
This article first appeared in the newly released 2019 State of the Mountains Report. We'll continue to publish articles exploring the science on our current state of Canada's alpine on our blog throughout the year. Find them all here.
Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort in Banff National Park. Photo: Sherpas Cinema
Mistakes to solutions
Whitebark pine was listed as an endangered species in Canada in 2010.¹ Three years later, Lake Louise Ski Resort cut down 38 individual pines.²³⁴ The species is susceptible to blister rust, a disease whose proliferation in North American alpine areas is linked with climate change. The removal of the pines, presumably to enhance visitor ski experiences and hill operations, highlighted the need for continued vigilance regarding biodiversity conservation efforts in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. The operator of the popular ski destination chose a proactive course of action to address this mistake. It expanded its environmental management programs, hired a full-time environmental manager for the resort, and worked with Parks Canada and consultants to identify and tag the remaining 7,000 whitebark pine on its leasehold.⁵ Lake Louise Ski Resort also developed interpretative and environmental education programs for visitors, simultaneously enriching learning opportunities for skiing vacationers and reinforcing corporate commitment to environmentalism. These initiatives, undertaken by one of the last family owned and operated ski resorts in North America, represent an important step towards sustainability, as well as sustainable tourism in Canada’s mountains.
Ecotourism: a solution to a growing industry?
In Canada, the Canadian Ski Council estimates $1.373 billion in ski area revenues were generated in 2016/17; total revenues from winter operations in western Canadian ski areas totalled $794 million.⁶ Tourism operators, if they wish for long-term relationships with the mountain environments that serve as essential attractants for their clients, need to step up and engage proactively in environmentally-minded management programs that are meaningful and multi-faceted. In return, clients must make informed, mindful choices in their travel decision-making to support sustainability-minded operators.
Group tour at the Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park, Alberta. Photo: Brewster Travel Canada
David Weaver, of Griffith University in Brisbane, wrote about the possibility of mass ecotourism more than a decade ago.⁷ Essentially, he argued that large-scale boat tours and similar guided excursions afford important opportunities for tourists to experience nature directly, enhanced by rich environmental education programs, and facilitated by environmentally-sound businesses investments, such as green infrastructure. The opportunity for this occurs in many of Canada’s mountain parks. For example, boat tours on Gros Morne’s Western Brook Pond, which hosts 35,000+ visitors per year, reported a 17% increase in visitation in 2017.⁸ The interpretation that visitors receive on these tours, however, lacks depth and complexity, and often make no ‘call to action’ that empowers visitors with knowledge of how they can make changes in their everyday life to mitigate climate change, advance biodiversity conservation, and similar environmental agendas. Operators will often explain that visitors do not want to hear negative, worrisome, or guilt-inducing messaging while on vacation. However, more recent strategies designed to help tourists understand complex environmental challenges, and their role as both contributor and problem solver, can be used to enhance visitor experiences through positive, personalized storytelling, that provide tools for visitors to become better informed and take action.⁹
This approach could be used by mass tourism mountain tourism providers who wish to become more engaged in climate change action and environmental justice advocacy. Examples in Canada’s Rocky Mountains include the interpretive signage provided by Parks Canada at Mount Edith Cavell’s Angel Glacier or Pursuit’s iconic buggy tours of the rapidly receding Athabasca Glacier. At both attractions, the demise of the glaciers and links to climate change are provided, but few attempts are made to link these issues with human activity, and no constructive tips are provided for visitors so that they might mitigate their own personal contributions.¹⁰ Similar messaging can be used to increase tourists’ pro-environmental behaviours while visiting Canadian alpine destinations. Co-production opportunities exist where operators can invite tourists to collaborate with them to reduce the carbon footprint of their stay. Asking hotel guests to reuse their towels and delay bedding change are simple examples that can dramatically reduce water, energy, and detergent use.¹¹ However, much more explicit and ambitious programs need to be implemented in Canada’s mountain tourism destinations if the tourism sector is to adequately advance the sustainability agenda. Consider Crystal Creek Meadows, located in Australia’s Kangaroo Valley, where clients, upon check in, are asked to agree to an environmental pledge, learn about the resort’s environmental management efforts, and adjust their energy and water consumption while at the hotel.¹² Guests receive daily updates on their rates of consumption while at the hotel, further inspiring guest awareness and action. In short, guests are actively co-producing carbon footprint reductions with their hospitality provider.
Opportunities in the challenge
Shoreline cruises, Waterton Lakes National Park. Photo: Travel Alberta / Katie Goldie
This guest-operator collaboration can be expanded in Canada. Currently, the Town of Banff is reviewing a proposed Environmental Master Plan, an important opportunity to impose and support tourism operators’ greening efforts.¹³ Within the plan, tracking of tourists’ carbon footprint is proposed as a means to understand the profound impact of mass long-haul tourism on alpine environments. The 9.2 million visitors that visited Parks Canada’s seven mountain parks between 2016/17 and 2017/18 represent both a challenge and opportunity.14 Co -producing climate change mitigation outcomes through engagement of visitors, and productive partnerships between operators and management authorities, such as the Town of Banff and Parks Canada, are essential ways forward. As an example, Banff’s environmental plan outlines the expansion of sustainable transportation through the expansion of cycling lanes and publicly-supported park-buses, which move visitors to and from Calgary. These types of initiatives are indispensable if Canadian mountain destinations wish to maintain their famous snow-capped mountain environments.
Elizabeth A. Halpenny is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta.
References
1. Whitebark pine. Species at Risk Public Registry. Accessed Jan 10, 2019 from https://wildlife-species.canada.ca/species-risk-registry/species/speciesDetails_e.cfm?sid=1086
2. Conboy, M. (2018). Lake Louise fined $2.1 Million for unlawful destruction of whitebark pine. Crag and Canyon, Dec. 2, 2018. Accessed Jan 18, 2019 from https://www.thecragandcanyon. ca/news/local-news/lake-louise-fined-2-1-million-for-unlawful-destruction-of-whitebark-pine.
3. Foubert, T. (2018). Whitebark recovery plan expected as part of ski hill sentencing. Rocky Mountain Outlook, Jul 19, 2018. Accessed Feb. 3, 2019 from https://www.rmoutlook.com/article/ whitebark-recovery-plan-expected-as-part-of-ski-hill-sentencing-20180719
4. Grant, M. (2018). Lake Louise ski resort wants fine reduced from $2M to $200,000 for chopping down endangered trees. CBC. ca, Dec 21, 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ alberta-lake-louise-trees-remove-sentence-appeal-1.4956228
5. Graveland, B. (2018). Lake Louise ski resort fined $2M for removal of endangered trees. CBC.ca, Nov. 18, 2018. Accessed Jan 10, 2019 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ alberta-lake-louise-trees-remove-sentence-1.4927034.
6. SkiCanada.org (2019). “Canadian ski and snowboard industry revenues estimated at nearly $1.4 Billion.” Downloaded Jan 30, 2019 from https://www.skicanada.org/canadian-ski-snowboard-industry-revenues-estimated-nearly-1-4-billion/
7. Weaver, D. B. (2001). Ecotourism as mass tourism: Contradiction or reality? Cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 42(2), 104-112.
8. Newfoundland Labrador: Department of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation. Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Tourism Performance 2017. Accessed 8 Feb. 2019 from: https://www.tcii.gov.nl.ca/tourism/tourism_research/pdf/ Annual_Performance_Report_2017_(Final%20April%202018).pdf
9. Warren, C., & Coghlan, A. (2017). Can the hospitality sector ask customers to help them become more sustainable?. Progress in Responsible Tourism, 98. Accessed Jan 10, 2019 from http:// icrtourism.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/filePiRT51. pdf#page=100.
10. Lemieux, C. J., Groulx, M., Halpenny, E., Stager, H., Dawson, J., Stewart, E. J., & Hvenegaard, G. T. (2018). “The End of the Ice Age?”: Disappearing World Heritage and the Climate Change Communication Imperative. Environmental Communication, 12(5), 653-671.
11. Warren, Christopher, and Susanne Becken. “Saving energy and water in tourist accommodation: A systematic literature review (1987–2015).” International Journal of Tourism Research 19.3 (2017): 289-303.
12. Warren, C., Becken, S., & Coghlan, A. (2017). Using persuasive communication to co-create behavioural change–engaging with guests to save resources at tourist accommodation facilities. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(7), 935-954.
13. Town of Banff (2019). Environmental Master Plan. Accessed Jan 10. 2019 from http://banff.ca/index.aspx?NID=290
14. Parks Canada Agency (2019). Parks Canada Attendance 2017- 18. Accessed Feb. 8, 2019 from https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/docs/ pc/attend