Smithers Symposium on mountain community development: Planning for tourism, amenity migration and resorts

The purpose of this event is to bring together researchers, planning practitioners, and decision-makers concerned with planning for nature-based tourism, amenity migration, and large resort development in mountain communities of the world, but particularly those in the British Columbia interior. Increasingly, non-metropolitan mountain communities are invited to develop economies based on relatively new kinds of development. One of these kinds of development is nature-based tourism, in which local residents earn their livelihoods by providing outfitting and guiding services, local knowledge, accommodation, and transportation to visitors. A second is amenity migration, in which local economies thrive under the impetus of people who come to a place as new residents (or, by some definitions, as second home owners) and in one way or another bring with them their investment incomes, their own jobs and businesses, or simply their determination to make do. A third is big resorts, in which a community derives jobs and business opportunities from carefully planned and designed recreational facilities situated in the midst of superb landscapes nearby. Are any of these approaches to economic development good and sustainable for a small community with a life of its own? What can case histories, research generally, and firsthand experience tell us as planners and decision-makers?Finally, what can we learn from discussion and friendly debate?