Celestial Body

This Tuesday, I attended the Strategic Tourism for Areas and Regions (STAR) meeting at the MacDonald Museum in Middleton.

There were five sessions over two days in Windsor, Kentville, Wolfville, Annapolis Royal and Middleton. The hosts were ACOA and the Valley REN. The keynote speaker was Richard Innes, Brain Trust Marketing and Communications. He has been hired as the STAR consultant. The project is designed to lay a foundation for responsible, collaborative, sustainable community-based tourism.

The concept is to develop sustainable tourism for areas and regions. Richard Innes has completed a similar assignment for the Eastport Peninsula, Newfoundland.

Comments from the audience included: need for infrastructure, sustainable tourism, augmented reality.

My own comments are along following lines.

We should develop sustainable tourism consistent with the values for sustainable forestry and sustainable agriculture. There are many opportunities for experiential tourism which include hiking, bicycling and canoeing. If the focus is on ’areas’ and ’regions’ then it is critical that we develop ’geographic information’ infrastructure, available both online and hard-copy products.

We may want to learn from other jurisdictions, for example in Newfoundland we have the Shorefast Foundation on Fogo Island. Likewise, tourism destinations in the UK, USA and Europe.

Part of the tourism infrastructure is training guides to lead infrastructure opportunities. There are many stories about ’The Mountain and the Valley’. This could be extended in support of experiential tourism.

The region has never fully realized the potential of the Annapolis Heritage River. There should be links to existing festivals, like Devour and Deep Roots festival.

Given the unique character of the landscape from the Bay of Fundy, North and South Mountain, and the Valley, there are many stories that can be developed within the context of Sustainable Tourism.

Given my own personal experience at COGS, I would promote the concept of a new program which combines ’geographic information’ with sustainability in forestry, agriculture and tourism. This would also permit access to new software tools e.g. AI, Augmented Reality, and new devices. Sustainability could include different modes of transportation for all segments of society e.g. from electric bikes to fishing boats.

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Tonight (Wednesday) I plan to attend the Municipality of Annapolis County meeting in Bridgetown (weather permitting). I did attend. It was a town hall style meeting for residents of Bridgetown hosted by Warden Alan Parish and Councillor David Hudson.

The CAO was unable to attend because of the weather. Topics, under discussion, were the sale of the elementary school, the sale of the town hall and the current tax rate. It was encouraging to hear the voices of both long term residents as well as newcomers to the community. I had planned to raise the question of sustainable forestry in Annapolis County , but felt that it was outside this context.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Celes Davar for information on the STAR event. Anne Crossman on the Municipal event in Bridgetown. Edward for adding the graphics and links.

Reference

The Self-guided PiRat Ghost History Hunt, Available at the App Store PiratGhostHistoryHunt.com It is an Illustration of Augmented Reality concept.