Principal Investigator: Laurent Bourdeau (University of Laval)
Opportunity:
All around Canada and even worldwide, mountain communities supporting ski resorts are facing changes and challenges (Perrin-Malterre, 2018: 67), including those related to climate change, aging facilities and tourism trends (Tremblay-Pecek et al., 2018: 218). This dynamic creates opportunities for mountain communities wishing to innovate and sustainably develop tourism. In phase with this trend, the Mont-Orford community is aiming to reaffirm its tourism and recreational vocation and launch a diversification of its offering into a four-season recreational and tourism destination.
Objectives:
The project aims to document, analyse, accompany and stimulate the participatory and community-based tourism development in the Parc national du Mont-Orford area. The developed governance model will: (a) be built with the intention of being exportable and adaptable to other similar contexts; and (b) be developed to allow participation from all community stakeholders involved and impacted by mountain recreational and tourism activities.
Research Plan:
Systemic leadership (Beritelli and Bieger, 2014) is a governance approach which requires the involvement of community members working together and influencing each other towards “the common good” (Komppula, 2016: 68-69). This type of co-creation and cooperation effort is inspiring the different stakeholders involved in the development of the Mont-Orford area. Action-research mode will be used to mobilize practitioners and researchers working hand in hand to co-construct knowledge and co-design the governance model. Ongoing and iterative knowledge building and transfer between community partners and academics will naturally emerge from the co-construction process as the project evolves. Participation of community partners in the process will represent training opportunities, a capital that will perpetuate the legacy of the project.
Key Outcomes & Impact:
We will seek to mobilize private sector and public sector partners around governance. The importance will be to propose a model of economic development governance that will respect sustainable development.
