Understanding the community-level impacts of tourism development : the case of Pond Inlet, NWT

• Main Author: Grekin, Jacqueline
• Other Authors: Milne, Simon (advisor)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1994
• Subjects: Tourism > Nunavut > Pond Inlet.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=68096

This thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the economic and socio-cultural impacts associated with small scale tourism development in the Inuit community of Pond Inlet, Baffin Island. A brief history and economic profile of the community illuminate the reasons underlying its adoption of tourism as a source of income and employment. I then proceed to review past attempts to understand the relationship between tourism and community development. Despite the merits of these studies, they are shown to have largely failed to supply a theoretical framework capable of explaining the underlying factors that influence the scale and nature of the resulting impacts. I then propose that recent theoretical developments, based on the 'flexible specialization' approach, may better assist our attempts to understand the dynamic relationship between tourism and the communities that host it. === The empirical section of the thesis is based on surveys of several key actors: residents, tourists, and the tourist industry. When combined with a simplified multiplier analysis, the findings indicate that the community's current tourism strategy is largely consistent with local economic objectives and that as a result residents support tourism development. Nevertheless, the results suggest certain weaknesses in the current approach to tourism development. They include: the potential for conflicts to develop between local hunters and wildlife watchers; a failure to link tourism to other sectors of the local economy; and difficulties reaching consumers in the context of a restructured travel industry increasingly dominated by computer technology. I then proceed to provide some policy and planning recommendations. This is followed by a brief evaluation of the theoretical approach adopted. I conclude by outlining some areas for future research.