Tourism growth management: An examination of opportunities for Salt Spring Island, British Columbia

Tourism development in a community may bring both positive and negative effects. While the community may benefit from tax generation and job creation, tourism development may also be accompanied by impacts such as environmental degradation, loss of affordable housing, crime, and crowding and congestion. This project suggests that many of these impacts may be assuaged through better controls and management of tourism growth.;A case study of Salt Spring Island, B.C. was examined, and issues related to tourism growth identified. Using structured interviews with experts from communities around North America, this project then investigated the tools available to Salt Spring to address tourism growth issues.;Research results revealed that there are many tools available to communities to better manage tourism growth, including Official Community Plan (OCP) policies, zoning, and subdivision bylaws, design guidelines, lobbying other government agencies, public education and local business codes of ethics.;This paper concludes that for most effective implementation of tourism growth management strategies, issues should be examined collectively within the local government planning system. A conceptual model of a tourism growth management process is proposed The advantages of the local government planning system as a forum for tourism growth management are that it is answerable to the community as a whole, rather than simply to tourism businesses, and it has a wide variety of legislated, enforceable tools at its disposal to proactively manage growth (e.g. OCP policies, zoning etc.). An understanding of the current state of the natural base and social goals are essential steps in effective management. This paper therefore strongly advocates the development of community monitoring schemes to better understand tourism's impacts and to track the effectiveness of management tools.