Identifying barriers to environmentally sustainable tourism: Exploratory findings from the Bighorn Backcountry
Date
2020-04-03
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Abstract
Recent interest in actively developing the tourism industry in the Bighorn Backcountry of Alberta has caused concern over the sustainability of such development. There is agreement among tourists, developers, and other stakeholders that the authentic environment, free of large amounts of infrastructure, should be preserved. To maintain a sustainable tourism environment without hard infrastructure mitigating environmental impact, the Alberta Government has identified a target tourist type, authentic tourists. Authentic tourists are considered to have a high level of ecological concern for the destinations that they visit, resulting in the province’s expectation that such tourists will exhibit a high level of responsibility for environmental sustainability. I interviewed tourists staying in the Bighorn Backcountry, representative of the authentic tourist type, in order to explore challenges related to the proposed development model. I identified a conflict between how tourists perceived their responsibility for the environmental sustainability of their destination and the expectation for responsibility that the development plan is reliant on. Use of online platforms is explored as an approach for overcoming the identified conflict. Findings suggest there is potential in the anticipation stage of travel to engage tourists with environmental concerns and initiatives. Requirements for information to be accessed and utilized by tourists include the need for convenience, trustworthiness, and presentation of facts rather than opinion.
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Sustainable Tourism, Bighorn Backcountry
Citation
Tyssen, R. K. (2020). Identifying barriers to environmentally sustainable tourism: Exploratory findings from the Bighorn Backcountry (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.