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The purpose of this study was to answer the question: how do children influence attraction choice while on vacation? A cross-sectional, self-administered, web-based survey of 99 adult facilitators visiting one of three tourist attractions in Winnipeg, Canada with at least one child between the ages of six and 17 was used to: 1) gain insight on how groups with a child/children prefer to travel; 2) understand the reasons why groups with a child/children choose to visit a select type of attraction; 3) examine the views of adult facilitators who travel with a child/children on the child/children’s participation with regards to the selection of tourist attractions; and 4) investigate which attraction characteristics adult facilitators believe provide their entire group with the most satisfying experience. Results indicate that children have relatively little direct influence within the family or group unit on attraction choice.

Traditionally, feasibility analysis in the construction sector is limited to financial considerations. As the concept of sustainability becomes increasingly important, the methods used in a feasibility analysis have to be reconfigured in a way that incorporates elements of sustainability. This research uses water recycling systems (within the built environment) as an example to demonstrate how sustainability factors can be integrated quantitatively in feasibility studies. The model is structured in a triple-bottom-line framework, which consists of economic, environmental, and social aspects. Each aspect is measured by a spectrum of parameters, which evaluate three project outcomes of water recycling systems—water savings, project requirements, and positive image. Based on the quantified parameters, Green Factor, a decision making method, is formulated to assist in sustainability oriented feasibility analysis for construction projects.

This thesis tells two intertwined stories about stories about nature. One, theoretical, asks what stories and histories do and why storytelling matters in place-making and policy-making. The second questions the effect of narratives of pristine nature on place-meanings in southwest New Zealand, serving as a case study to illustrate the abstract relationships of the first. Throughout reflexive consideration of my research journey as academic storytelling contributes to my theoretical arguments. Narratives help humans make sense of time and their place in the world. Stories and histories both shape new and reflect current understandings of the world. Thus narratives of nature and place are historically, geographically, and culturally specific. Place-meanings result from the geography of stories layered over time on a physical location. In the iterative process of continually re-presenting landscapes in specific places, negotiation between storytellers with variable power shapes physical environments and future place-meanings. This thesis uses the pristine story to explore these links between stories and histories, place-meanings, and policy decisions. From the arrival of New Zealand's first colonists to today's perceived "clean green" landscape, narratives distinguishing timeless nature from human culture have influenced policy-making in multiple ways. Focusing specifically on understandings of the conservation lands now listed by UNESCO as Te Wāhipounamu South-West World Heritage Area, I trace the origins and evolution of three dominant narrative strands - world heritage, national parks, and Ngāi Tahu cultural significance. Using post-colonial understandings of conservation as cultural colonization, I consider how the pristine narrative obscured Ngāi Tahu understandings of the area. I explore how the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 has begun to shift place-meanings by altering power-geometries between storytellers. Participant-observation in Department of Conservation visitor centres, however, illustrates that legislated stories and storytelling processes are expressed differently in representations of land in specific locations