Editor:
I am writing to applaud Vamini Selvanandan for her incisive and highly informed effort to challenge the tourism elephant in last week's Outlook commentary "Overtourism is crushing us".
In today’s rapidly changing and uncertain world, the old story underpinning the arguments of all tourism boosters and officials – that tourism means economic growth, jobs and money – has lost its validity.
Mostly unnoticed, the era of continued material growth is over; the planet will no longer support any definition of the good life that is anchored in unfettered consumption. The current climate trauma is but one dire symptom, now coupled with civilizational overshoot, ecological overshoot, inadequate government action and corporate deceit. All of Western society needs a new story, grounded in the stewardship of the more-than-human world that sustains the web of life. The unbridled tourism industry that now plagues Canmore is apparently oblivious to the web of life.
Why should our quality of life and our sense of place be jeopardized by people who come here primarily to entertain themselves?
How many more motels, hotels and hostels do we need? How many more “exclusive” condos do we need adjacent to the railroad tracks? How many more shops do we need, and so on? Unfortunately, plenty more it appears, judging by the current trajectory of the Town of Canmore.
There is a widespread misconception that markets create communities. In fact, the opposite is true, as the marketplace and its activities actually deplete the trust that binds healthy communities together. Business, including tourism, is about methods, techniques and profits, and business literacy is essential to our well-being. Business, however, is not about values, and it is high time that the Canmore town council and citizens have a serious conversation about what we value before it is too late to save what we value most. It may already be too late.
Although I am reluctant to promote the manufacturing of more stuff, perhaps a Canmore business could produce something of immediate relevance to the task at hand. I’m thinking of a license plate I saw on a truck from Alaska. It read, “Go home, we're full.”
Robert R. Janes
Canmore
