Tourism in the Beaver Hills Region

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• Tourism in the Beaver Hills Region

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Outline

• Overview of Tourism in BHI
• Current Tourism Initiatives
• Future Tourism Research, Planning, and
  Development Opportunities

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Overview of Tourism inBeaver Hills Region

• Seamless integration with the BHI vision,
  mission, and guiding principles.
• Developing and managing tourism recreation in
  an environmentally, socially/culturallysustainabl
  e mannerwhile optimizingeconomic benefitsfor
  communitieswithin the BHI region.

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Overview of Tourism inBeaver Hills Region

• Sense of place based on natural capital

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Overview of Tourism inBeaver Hills Region

• Heritage Appreciation Development Plan for the
  Beaver Hills

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Overview of Tourism inBeaver Hills Region

• Unique highlights include
• Elk Island National Park
• Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area
• Miquelon Lake Provincial Park
• Natural Areas and ESAs
• Ministik Lakes Game Bird Sanctuary
• Beaverhill Lake

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Overview of Tourism inBeaver Hills Region

• Other unique highlights
• Waskahegan Trail
• Strathcona Wilderness Centre
• Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village
• Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival
• Blackfoot Ultra Marathon
• 2007 Western Canada Summer Games
• Ag/rural tourism
• Aboriginal tourism
• Ecotourism

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Current Tourism Initiatives

• UofA Research
• Examine economic values through the
  identification of the benefits and costs of
  tourist travel and recreation activities that are
  common to Beaver Hills.
• Identify non-monetary values of
  tourism/recreation.
• Useful reference document to initiate discussion
  on planning policy and tourism/recreation
  development decisions.

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Tourism Research, Planning,and Development
Opportunities

• Assessment of existing and potential
  tourism/recreation operations (complementary to
  HA Dev Plan)
• Spatial inventory of tourism/recreation
  activities, operations and trails (GPS)
• Inventory of trail plans, tourism/rec studies,
  policies, plans, and bylaws impacting tourism/rec
  development
• Identify tourism/rec opportunities and
  constraints
• How can we promote and further develop
  appropriate tourism/recreation in the BHI?
• Map of existing and potential activitiesand
  operations for planners

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Tourism Research, Planning,and Development
Opportunities

• What is the economic and non-monetary value of
  tourism and recreation in the BHI region?
• Feasibility analysis
• BHI develop a vision and plan to achieve defined
  tourism/recreation goals.
• BHI- a model for sustainable tourism development
  in Alberta??

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• Tourism in the Beaver Hills Region