Tourism Capability Modelling in B.C .

This B.C tourism capability model, created by Clover Point Cartographics Ltd., addresses
potential by looking at existing facilities/activities and judging the carrying capacity of land that
supports these preferred tourist activities. “A capability model is a set of rules which defines how
natural, cultural, and infrastructure resources combine to create capability for a given tourism product.
Capability in this case is “the ability of the natural and cultural resources to support a defined tourism
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product.” The first step in developing a tourism capability model was to identify which natural
resources are essential to the product.28 Tourism capability modelling in B.C. has gone through three
stages, the tourism resource inventory, the tourism capability mapping, and the tourism potential or
suitability models. The first step in the history of this B.C. capability modelling process was the
creation of a tourism resource inventory; for the purposes of B.C. this inventory was created at a scale
of 1:250, 000.

The 1:250,000 Tourism Resource Inventory consists of two components, an inventory or
resource identification stage and a mapping component. The inventory includes existing activities,
facilities, natural and cultural resources, and the infrastructure capable of future tourism uses. The
resource inventory mapped existing tourism facilities, use areas, information on facilities such as
hotels, ski hills, fishing lodges, attractions like museums, and activities such as heli-skiing, trail
riding, backcountry skiing, wildlife viewing, and other nature-based activities. The second step in the
process describes and maps the capability of the resource base to support future tourism use for a wide
variety of tourism products.29 The actual tourism potential (capability) mapping does not use
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which was only used to compile and record the tourism
inventory mapping. This Tourism Resource Inventory was then taken to tourism experts who review
the information and draw lines on a map to depict tourism potential or suitability as B.C. now refers to
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it.
As with any type of predictive or subjective effort such as tourism capability (potential)
modelling, the process was guided by personal preferences. This means that there are assumptions that
must be made concerning the input data used. Tourism capability modelling is assumed to be
somewhat generalized. “Tourism capability modeling was intended to provide a reflection of broad
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tourism values at a regional scale.” The model was intended to be a tool for land use planning within
natural areas as it was “an attempt to identify lands or resources of high value to selected tourism
products in a region and present these values to land use planning processes.”32 The first assumption
made was that the resources essential to the given tourism activity were identified before the model
was started.33 When selecting a tourism product for capability modelling and analysis it was assumed
that activities selected would be some of the most popular of the region, the tourism product would
have a high economic significance to the region, the quality of resources used for the product are high
in the area, the activities (products) chosen should fully represent the tourism resources found in the
study area, and there should be reasonable data coverage of the essential attributes for the activities.34
For nature tourism the setting was vital because a high quality natural environment was critical to the
success of many outdoor/nature tourism products like wildlife viewing, river rafting, and ocean
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kayaking. The activities were also assumed to include the attributes essential to their success, those
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attributes that modify the quality of the activity, exclude it, or provide access to the activity. The
following page, figure 4, shows the methodology behind the creation of the individual tourism
product model for hiking opportunities.