Beautiful (Rural) British Columbia

There’s no major museum in Chetwynd. Bella Coola doesn’t have a planetarium. The BC Lions don’t play football in Smithers. And you won’t find a zoo in Kaslo. These are the kinds of attractions that bring people and dollars to BC’s major cities. Lacking them, our smaller cities, towns, villages and rural areas would seem to be out of luck.  “Not so,” says Dr. Nicole Vaugeois. In 2008, she was appointed BC Regional Innovation Chair in Tourism & Sustainable Rural Development at Vancouver Island University. She’s full of ideas about how they can sustainably attract tourists and broaden their economic base. She comes by her interest naturally. She grew up in rural Alberta and now lives on an organic farm near Nanaimo.

At first glance - - particularly to a city dweller - - rural, small-town BC would seem to have enough assets to attract visitors. There are outdoor activities, such as skiing, riding, camping, fishing, hiking, birding and golfing, all framed by spectacular scenery. One can visit farms, ranches, wineries, mines, power dams, hatcheries and other sites not normally found in urban areas. Most BC towns and villages have bed-and-breakfast inns, restaurants, cultural events and festivals.  So what’s the problem?

“Rural communities need unique strategies to develop tourism – for several reasons,” says Dr. Vaugeois, who has a Ph.D. in tourism planning & development from Michigan State University. “While BC has great assets to attract visitors, some experiences are not yet ‘market ready’. There are fewer tourism entrepreneurs in rural areas so they’re not able to benefit from business clusters as those in urban areas can. Many of these operators are small family businesses with few resources. Tourism is a new industry for a lot of rural communities so they require ideas and information in order to be successful. Theirs is a small, shifting, population-base that can’t provide enough qualified staff, volunteers and leaders, and often excludes outsiders from local social ranks. Now that tourism is growing throughout BC, what is needed is more collaboration among communities, operators and marketing organizations.”

That’s where the new Chair, the first of its kind in Canada, comes in. With $1.25 million from the province’s Leading Edge Endowment Fund, matched by Vancouver Island University and the BC Real Estate Foundation, Dr. Vaugeois will be a powerful force for overcoming these challenges. “We must improve our market research and learn more about people who do visit BC rural areas -- and in what numbers,” she says. “Right now, the data is largely urban-centric. Operators in rural areas cannot assume that visitors to Vancouver are the same ones that come to Clearwater. Also they need to attract British Columbians as well as outsiders. BC has great natural scenery and great culture. People in coastal villages, First Nations communities, forest communities, farms and ranches are authentic and can provide great experiences for visitors.”

Then, there’s the matter of sustainability. The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as that which leads to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be filled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. “When BC residents travel to rural areas of the province – ‘stay-cations’ we sometimes call them -- they emit less carbon,” Dr. Vaugeois points out. “By spending their vacation budgets this way they infuse much needed money into the rural economy. This helps preserve our shared human and natural heritage.”

Dr. Vaugeois currently heads a multi-partner project called Tourism Research Innovation Project. The emphasis in “TRIP” is on sharing community, government and academic knowledge about tourism development with rural communities throughout the province. It helps them develop how-to manuals, stage workshops and identify tourism innovators. Looking further ahead she wants to study the barriers to sustainable tourism among communities and operators, and analyze official community plans to see how (or if) tourism is being integrated into planning and development.

As a professor in Vancouver Island University’s Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, she has students who may wish to pursue careers in this field. What are the job opportunities for graduates? “Our students often end up as researchers in marketing organizations or in parks and protected areas,” she says. “They may become event planners or economic development officers or start their own businesses. Some go to work for public agencies and governments while others continue on to grad school.”

She draws a sharp distinction between tourism and other industries. “Tourism delivers an experience, not a product for export. For it to succeed there must be capacity-building, education, support, community investment and lots of hard work. My Chair is dedicated to achieving that success.”

To learn more about Nicole Vaugeois and sustainable tourism development, visit http://web.viu.ca/vaugeois/ .