Flynn Saunderson is a second-year master’s student of community planning at Vancouver Island University (VIU), and his thesis explores the impact of tourism on resort municipalities throughout B.C.
He’s currently seeking survey respondents from Whistler. With 14 resort municipalities under his microscope, so far, he’s had 1,100 respondents. However, response numbers from Whistler are currently low, despite the ski town having the highest population of all towns surveyed. As of Jan. 15, he’s only had 20 responses from Whistler.
“It’s the largest of all resort municipalities, I was hoping it would be a bit more robust,” he said.
Saunderson’s path to studying resort municipalities is informed by his lived experience. He grew up in Tofino and Ucluelet and went on to study tourism management before pursuing his masters. Between educational stints, he interned and then worked as a marketing specialist for Destinations Canada, looking at domestic tourism post-COVID-19.
“That led to a personal reflection period coming out of the pandemic,” he said. “How could communities manage tourism? We’re seeing resident-tourist conflict in certain parts of the world. With growth in tourism the last decade, how are destinations approaching this from a management perspective? What are the perspective and experiences of individuals who live there currently? It’s different from community to community.”
By providing their lived experience, Whistler residents can provide their thoughts on the positive and challenging parts of living in a resort town, with the survey asking respondents questions about housing, economic benefits or drawbacks, cultural impacts and the natural environment.
The anonymous survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Respondents will be entered to win one of three $50 giftcards to a local grocery store as an incentive.
While individual resort towns like Whistler have done studies on the impacts of tourism, Saunderson said his literature review didn’t reveal any province-wide trends on the topic. By taking a view from 3,000 feet up, he’s hoping to inform local governments and the province on B.C.-wide trends.
The researcher is also interviewing municipal staff. Responses are confidential and analyzed in the aggregate to see trends across the province.
“I’m hoping to provide an understanding of what people are experiencing with tourism and the tourism economy, but also what resort municipalities are dealing with from their perspectives. This would provide information to potentially form knowledge that could be acted upon for community-level supports, and potentially at provincial levels. It’s too early to say what those would specifically be,” Saunderson said.
He's hoping to have enough survey responses by Jan. 26. The other communities surveyed include Tofino, Ucluelet, Rossland, Revelstoke, Golden, Harrison Hot Springs, Osoyoos, Valemount, Sun Peaks, Kimberley, Fernie, Invermere and Radium Hot Springs.
