'I just felt like I was ready to move': tourism sustainability and migration among youth and young families in the Bonne Bay area

Souza de Brito, Bruna (2022) 'I just felt like I was ready to move': tourism sustainability and migration among youth and young families in the Bonne Bay area. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Periods of economic decline can generate social and environmental problems and disrupt the sustainability of local communities. In response, governments and industries increasingly promote tourism as a tool for development and economic diversification. Tourism development promises to create employment and alleviate problems generated by downturns, such as youth outmigration and population decline. In this project, I use semi-structured interviews and content analysis of policy documents to identify discourses about the role of the tourism industry in helping rural communities to achieve their sustainability goals. I then examine how youth and members of young families experience tourism development in Bonne Bay (Newfoundland and Labrador) and how these experiences shape their migration intentions. The results show that the provincial government emphasizes quantitative measures of growth rather than equity as a framework for interpreting tourism development. However, this contradicts local needs and experiences of how youth and members of young families relate to the tourism industry. The gap between official tourism development discourse and local experiences has important implications for the potential of tourism to contribute to the long-term sustainability of communities in Bonne Bay.

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