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

• Main Author: Grekin, Jacqueline
• Other Authors: Milne, Simon (advisor)
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: McGill University 1994
• Subjects: Tourism > Nunavut > Pond Inlet; Nunavut; Baffin Island; Pond Inlet; Watchers; Baffin; inuit
• 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.