At a general level, the intent of this thesis is to make a contribution to the increasing body
of research on tourism planning as well as collaboration in natural resource management. At a
more specific level this thesis looks at the level of tourism collaboration occurring within British
Columbia's Land and Resource Management Planning Processes.
Because of its great beauty and natural diversity, tourism and outdoor recreation have
emerged as two of BC's fastest growing industries (Tourism BC 1996). However, tourism is only
one of many competing forms of large scale development that are placing ever-increasing
pressure on BC's lands and resources. In response to this pressure and resultant conflicts, the BC
government has developed a strategy for shared decision making processes (SDM). A key
element of the strategy is to encourage and support public participation in land use planning
processes. This is to occur through collaboration and shared decision-making processes that
bring together government and stakeholders to negotiate consensus agreements on land and
resource management issues. Adherence to the SDM processes should therefore lead to more
meaningful and effective participation by tourism (Williams et. al. 1998). This thesis analyzes
the degree of collaboration within one of these SDM processes, specifically the Robson Valley
Land and Resource Management Planning Process, from a tourism perspective.
Based on theory and practical examples of community tourism collaboration, a case study
interview questionnaire was designed and administered to nine public and one government
participant from the Robson Valley LRMP process. The study of the Robson Valley case
highlights linkages between the practical realities of a public land use planning process that is
explicitly based upon the concepts of collaboration and the theoretical elements of collaborative
planning for tourism.
The results of the research indicate that while there are many opportunities for
collaboration in an LRMP, institutional and situational obstacles can hinder it. These obstacles,
include; imbalances of power at the table, lack of resources and government support for
participation, and lack of recognition by powerful and controlling sectors of their
interdependencies with other land use interests. They can be significant enough for tourism to be
dis-satisfied with the outcomes of the process and to lose trust with the government over its
control of the process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8357 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Watchorn, Elizabeth Mary |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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