Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (School of Resource and Environmental Management) / Simon Fraser University. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-231). Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Recreation planners at mountain resort communities must decide what types of recreation facilities and activities to provide in order to meet the diverse needs of the community. This thesis attempts to answer this question specifically for the Resort Municipality of Whistler. Determinants of participation in recreation are highly psychological. Thus, description of potential client groups must rely heavily upon attitudes, perceptions, and behavior. Theories of recreation serve as a useful planning tool helping planners understand peoples' recreation desires. A clear understanding of what people want recreation to accomplish for them is crucial when deciding what type of recreation facilities and activities to provide. However, as discovered when examining resort communities, it is not enough for planners just to take into account functional considerations when planning recreation facilities. Planners must be aware of the resort's image. People typically visit a resort community because they identify with its image. Images are based upon peoples' impressions of the entire resort community, including the facilities offered and both the natural and built environment. The challenge for the planner is to translate peoples' recreation desires into facilities that serve as concrete expressions of the resort's image. This thesis develops as framework to consider such a challenge. This is achieved by: a review of recreation theory and resort planning literature; review of resort communities similar to Whistler; informal interviews, and by a survey of Whistler property owners administered by the author. There are three main findings. First, recreation theory is an invaluable planning tool in helping planners decide what type of recreation facilities to provide. Second, recreation planners can help create a particular type of resort by providing facilities; however, the market eventually determines the resort's status. Third, more substantial market research is required to determine what type of resort the Municipality of Whistler should strive to become. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The aim of this thesis is two-fold. My primary, theoretical aim is to present an alternative way for geographers to approach the study of tourist resort development. For over twenty years, resorts have been understood through the framework of evolutionary models, the most widely-used being Richard Butler's 1981 Tourist Area Life Cycle. I argue that the time is ripe for a more sophisticated approach which i) identifies the multiplicity of actors involved in the destination-making process and elucidates the interactions between them; and ii) situates the resort within a dynamic, capitalist economy, increasingly dominated by large corporations. I suggest that one way we can do this is to take particular moments in a resort's trajectory and examine the responses made by key players in the production of the resort. My starting point for my investigation into Whistler Resort, British Columbia is the merger in 1996 of its two ski mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, under the ownership of Intrawest Corporation. A recent wave of consolidation in the North American ski industry has seen increasing numbers of once-independent ski areas coming under the control of four large corporations, Intrawest being one. My second aim with this thesis, therefore, is to shed light on the process of ski resort development in light of the recent industry reorganisation. In particular, I use my case-study of Whistler to interrogate the corporatisation thesis of historian Hal Rothrnan. Rothman's account of resort development in the twentieth-century American West leads him to view large corporations as extractive forces which pay scant respect to local communities and cultures, treating them instead as marketable commodities. The experience of Whistler, however, suggests a much greater degree of mterdependence and co-operation between the ski corporation and local stakeholders in the resort - a situation that arises because of its unique administrative, political and economic context.

Just prior to the opening of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, a 21-year-old Georgian luger died after his sled left the Whistler Sliding Centre track travelling at 140 kilometres an hour. The following paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis and the Bahktinian notion of intertextuality to examine how Canadian media discursively constructed social media users and their sharing of the images, video, and opinions following the tragedy. The results show traditional media discursively constructed social media as outsiders, separate from the audience, and further argued they need to follow traditional media norms in order to be responsible citizens. In considering this discursive construction within the political economy of traditional media, it is suggested that one tactic employed is the creation of flak, which attempts to discredit what it opposes. Traditional media discourse, sometimes itself the target of flak, here uses flak against social media which are impinging on the political economy of the traditional media. Keywords: audience, critical discourse, flak, intertextuality, Olympics, political economy, social media, traditional media

The aim of this thesis is two-fold. My primary, theoretical aim is to present an alternative way for geographers to approach the study of tourist resort development. For over twenty years, resorts have been understood through the framework of evolutionary models, the most widely-used being Richard Butler's 1981 Tourist Area Life Cycle. I argue that the time is ripe for a more sophisticated approach which i) identifies the multiplicity of actors involved in the destination-making process and elucidates the interactions between them; and ii) situates the resort within a dynamic, capitalist economy, increasingly dominated by large corporations. I suggest that one way we can do this is to take particular moments in a resort's trajectory and examine the responses made by key players in the production of the resort. My starting point for my investigation into Whistler Resort, British Columbia is the merger in 1996 of its two ski mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, under the ownership of Intrawest Corporation. A recent wave of consolidation in the North American ski industry has seen increasing numbers of once-independent ski areas coming under the control of four large corporations, Intrawest being one. My second aim with this thesis, therefore, is to shed light on the process of ski resort development in light of the recent industry reorganisation. In particular, I use my case-study of Whistler to interrogate the corporatisation thesis of historian Hal Rothrnan. Rothman's account of resort development in the twentieth-century American West leads him to view large corporations as extractive forces which pay scant respect to local communities and cultures, treating them instead as marketable commodities. The experience of Whistler, however, suggests a much greater degree of mterdependence and co-operation between the ski corporation and local stakeholders in the resort - a situation that arises because of its unique administrative, political and economic context. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate