Green grass in the desert

This post may be a little off topic, but I think it is quite relevant in a lot of ways.  In my destination marketing organization class tonight we had a guest speaker who is one of the leading members of Tourism Kamloops.  The lecture was mainly based on research and some of the different development projects that Tourism Kamloops has been working on in its early stages of life.
Tourism Kamloops is making a huge push as a "Golf Destination" opening new courses and trying to bring in the elite golf tourists.  They are also trying very hard to develop sustainable tourism in this region.   By their definition, sustainable tourism is an economic concept, trying to develop tourism strategies to continue bringing visitors to this region.

But what if there is no destination for them to come to?  Kamloops is already a huge consumer of water, using far more than the national averages.  Keeping the grass green and the golf courses in pristine condition consumes even more water. When our speaker was questioned on the research that Tourism Kamloops has done on the environmental sustainability of this develop, they struggled to give a legitimate answer, simply saying "the Thompson River seems to still flood every year."  A follow up question was asked on whether or not Tourism Kamloops would have a long term plan on providing a cap or regulation on water usage, which led to the same result.

So how is this at all related to parks and industry development?  In my opinion, we are recklessly developing for short term gains and not looking at the long term problems.  Depleting the water supply and changing the natural environment is just as bad as cutting off the top of a mountain and building roads through forests for mineral extraction.  If we don't look at the long term impacts of our development regardless of the industry they fall in, we will see a future without destinations.  We can't market dried up golf greens and brown grass, just as we can't bring tourists to come check out where the mountain range used to be!
http://www.tourismkamloops.com/

The Blog

Through this blog I'll be looking at one of the biggest issues in Canadian Tourism today.  All throughout the country our government is selling of "public" lands and resources to huge corporations.  Many of these corporations are not even Canadian.  We are slowly losing our wild lands to forestry, hydro, mining and oil/gas extraction.  Canada is known for its images of mountains, lakes, forests and rivers, but we are quickly selling these off as natural resources.  The governments tendency to only look at the economic bottom line is missing the big picture, the need to conserve what makes our country what it is.

Tourism is a viable alternative to industry.  The more people we can bring to an area will stimulate the economy, and give much needed exposure to the post card images being sold off to corporations.  If more people come to visit and see our beautiful country we will be able to keep it wild forever.  The environment is an important aspect of our lives, and should be kept pristine for generations to come!