Problems/Improvements

For the most part tourism capability/potential modelling in B.C. seems to have been successful
as it involves the operators, government, and the user/tourist. However it has experienced some
problems during its inception and evolution. Since tourism capability modelling can be such a labour
intensive project it must have government co-operation to succeed. It appears that this type of
modelling has fallen out of favour with the B.C. government in recent years as its proponents have
either moved onto other departments or left government altogether. As well, there were problems
associated with the data and technical aspects of capability modelling. Within the models the land
base is assigned a relative value at a small scale (1:250,000). During development, models at finer
resolution (1:20,000) were created in an attempt to identify specific areas where tourism could be
developed instead of the general areas determined from smaller scale models. This was largely
unsuccessful though because it created results that were too fragmented to be of any real use. As quite
common in most areas the modelling efforts were also plagued by data access problems as data was
either restricted or was supposed to exist but did not in reality.56
As with any GIS modelling effort, the model will be a learning effort and the final outcome the
result of a long period of trial and error. Initial tourism capability efforts in B.C. during the mid-1990s
were reflective of this sentiment because the initial models had no suitability or economic feasibility
component and it was later discovered that in terms of tourism development these are important
elements. Through refinement there were many improvements made to the tourism resource inventory
that serves as the basis for tourism modelling. These refinements were: to assemble good base
mapping, pick appropriate and representative tourism resources, collect additional tourism data from
each region, incorporate recent data into existing tourism capability modelling methodology, run
tourism capability models for 10 products representing a range of important activities, and plot the
model outputs and collate them into a atlas.
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The last area of improvement was the development of a
Tourism Opportunity Spectrum (TOS) which uses tourism modelling to identify tourism opportunities
using a three step method. This TOS development is a refinement of the modelling efforts of the past
as it is more inclusive.

The three steps are capability, suitability, and economic feasibility. Step one is simply the ability

of resources to support various tourism products (activities). Step two considers if the proposed

development is consistent with local land-use or zoning (does it compete with or complement existing

resource users). Step three evaluated the viability of the tourism operation as a business. Here

capability has a community-sized focus unlike the larger regional capability focus of previous

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modelling. The B.C. tourism capability modelling case study can be broken down into the following

basic points:

Assumptions

Resources essential to the tourist activity identified before modelling.

Most popular and economic activities were assumed to be selected.

The model relied on reasonable data.

Problems/Improvements

Models at finer resolutions (1:20,000) produced results that were too fragmented to be useful.

There were data access problems concerning restricted data or data that should exist but did

not.

It was recommended that all tourism products be merged to create an atlas showing large scale

tourism potential.

Advantages

Tourism operators, users, the B.C. Government, and private sector consultants were all

Involved.

A major problem in the determination of tourism potential was how to put some type of

intrinsic value on seemingly abstract aesthetic criteria such as the value of scenic look-offs and

wilderness viewing areas. After research, the link between assessing tourism potential for a natural

area and the actual scenic qualities (natural aesthetics) of the area has become evident. Since nature-

based tourism, or any tourism, has to do with personal preferences it was quite reasonable to explore

how landscape aesthetics are ranked. Similarly, since tourists are attracted to an area because of its

natural beauty and scenic attributes they can also be discouraged from visiting areas because of

unsightly development that spoils the natural scenery; unsightly development has a negative visual

impact on the landscape.