Representing Kamloops

Small tourism experiences are offered by micro-enterprises to a limited group of visitors in a defined location. These tourism events are selected by residents, based on their place’s tangible and intangible assets which locals are willing to share. The community thus retains agency over how it is represented and presented, and where points of connection are with visitors, and between community members. In this way, visitors connect with an authentic heartbeat of a place.

Such points could be a corner, a monument, a cemetery, a shop, or the knowledge of how to create a traditional craft, food, or how to carry out work that is endemic to the life of those who live locally. It can be any small thing or idea that expresses the sense of place for locals and that, when that cultural asset intersects with the community’s desire to engage in tourism, results in creative tourism experiences that are sustainable, that are rooted in local nature and culture, and that strengthen, not deplete, the community’s sense of place and its local culture. Visitors can learn skills that are associated with the destination by participating with residents as they practice their particular cultural activities. In this way, small tourism can create social capital.

In CMNS 4020 Winter 2024, our class studied Prof. Kathleen Scherf’s book, Adventures in Small Tourism: Studies and Stories (University of Calgary Press, 2023). You can download it for free here. The “Introduction” provides a primer for understanding small tourism. For their class project, students imagined small tourism experiences that represent Kamloops and its surrounding area through sharing cultural assets that are rooted in the region’s local cultures. These proposals seek to link residents and visitors and strengthen cultural sustainability.