Michael has been involved in many projects and studies throughout his career. Below are brief descriptions of several recent projects with which he has been involved.

• Tourism Supply-Demand-Consequence Community  Assessments
• Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy - Best Practice Case Study
• Newfoundland Great Northern Peninsula Central Region - Interpretive Research
• Kentucky Hills Heritage Center
• Alberta's Fixed-Roof Accommodations - Regional Revenue Potential Analysis

Tourism Supply-Demand-Consequence Community  Assessments

The Tourism Supply-Demand-Consequence (SDC) Community Assessment is the foundation of Sustainable Tourism Destination planning and development. It is one of the most important Services that Community Tourism Planning & Design provides.

A SDC Assessment lets everyone in a community know where they are. With that information in hand, then they can decide where they want to go and figure out how to get there. That's Planning!

Michael, working with partner Heritage Design, recently completed SDC Assessments of the towns of Marcus and Kettle Falls, Washington. While they are very close to one another geographically in northeastern Washington State, the resulting assessments were very different, a reflection of very different circumstances, attitudes and vision.

Marcus, WA SDC Assessment	Kettle Falls, WA SDC Assessment

A Reader’s Guide to SDC Assessments can be downloaded to aid interpretation of the presentations.

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Northwest Manitoba Regional Tourism Strategy - Best Practice Case Study

In October 2002, The Northwest Manitoba Community Futures Development Corporation (Northwest CFDC), with the financial support of several federal and provincial government agencies, began a regional tourism strategy planning process [Click on Image]. The planning was completed in the spring of 2004 and implementation began shortly afterwards.

The planning process was deemed such a success by the project funders,  particularly Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, that Community Tourism Planning & Design was commissioned to conduct a separate Best Practice Case Study of the project. Key informant interviews were conducted in Winnipeg, Leaf Rapids, and Lynn Lake, Manitoba in September, 2004. Information gathered in the interviews was supplemented by researching project reports and secondary sources.

Key findings of best practice undertaken in the strategy planning process included: Organizational Rapport and Trust Building, Adoption of Regional Planning and "Focussing Down" Perspectives, Local Leadership, Community Visioning and Strategic Planning Process, Consensus Decision Making, Partnership Equity and Opportunity, Sustainability, and a Funders Parallel Process. The project was highlighted in the lead article of the Northwest CFDC's Summer 2005 Newsletter.


Note: The final documents are available as downloadable Adobe pdf files from the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada web site.
 

	English version
	La version française

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Newfoundland Great Northern Peninsula Central Region - Interpretive Research

Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula (GNP) Central Region lies in the shadow of Gros Morne National Park. From Gros Morne, the region is "on the way" up the peninsula to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site farther north. Both of these properties are designated World Heritage Sites.

The seven communities that make up the GNP Central Region face high levels of unemployment and out migration of their youth and young families. They are exploring ways to reverse these trends. One of the options for them is tourism development in the region.

Michael was contracted by the Central Development Association of Parsons Pond, Newfoundland to undertake research for interpretive planning and programming in the region with funding assistance from Strategic Partner CEDTAP.

The project identified three important interpretive stories:

• the regional social history and cultural evolution from the beginning of Newfoundland’s colonial period in 1824 to modern times;
• the in-shore fishing industry; and
• the historical geography of the local land forms.

It was proposed that these stories be woven together and presented to the traveling public as an ecomuseum.

During the process of analyzing the local landscape for its interpretive storyline and tourism development potential, it became apparent that a Tourism Zonation System could be successfully applied to the region to delineate areas of varying use intensities and development types. In addition this system would work to organize the spatial dimensions of particular interpretive story threads and suggest appropriate modes of delivery.

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Kentucky Hills Heritage Center

Michael joined the Heritage Design team in London, Kentucky to work on a site development plan for the Kentucky Hills Heritage Center, a project of the London - Laurel County Tourism Commission. The Commission vision that the main use of the site would be as a cultural heritage interpretive opportunity that would include events programming. Michael contributed two analyses to the planning process.

Target Market Geography In an earlier study of the region, a consultant asserted that there was a regional market for the centre of some one million plus people living within a 100-mile radius of the project site. An implicit assumption in such a statement is that there is a uniform distribution of that population throughout the region. This is clearly an unrealistic assumption. To market London - Laurel County, Kentucky under this assumption would call for simply blanketing the entire region with promotional material. This would lead to a considerable waste of money.

On reanalysis, using data drawn completely from the public domain and MapInfo® Geographic Information System (GIS) software, a map was produced [Click on Image above] that showed there are three high density population centres (red counties) within the 100-mile radius of the project site. Thus cost effective marketing efforts would be best targeted on these centres.

Destination Area Plan In a second analysis, Michael prepared a Destination Area Plan for the London – Laurel County region that showed locations of parks; forest lands; attractions, including a National Historic Byway; information centres and two service centre communities. The Kentucky Hills Heritage Center concept included it becoming a visitor information centre as as the heritage interpretive centre. From the heritage centre site,  located on Interstate 75 and acting as a northern gateway to the region, travellers could be easily pulled off the the "I-75 speed way" and directed to the attraction and service opportunities of the destination area south and southeast of London.

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Alberta's Fixed-Roof Accommodations - Regional Revenue Potential Analysis

There is a saying among tourism planners that If you want to make money in tourism, then get people into bed with you! And you might add At the right price, too.

Data provided by the Alberta Hotel Association offered an opportunity to examine this proposition and what it might mean for the six tourist zones in the province. What factors might affect  fixed-roof accommodation revenue potential and how would these factors, independently and jointly, vary spatially? As suggested by the original question there are several factors that jump to quickly mind: the number of rooms available and the room rate per night of occupancy. The combination of these two would be an indicator of revenue potential for a given geography.

MapInfo® GIS Software generated the trend surface or "contour" maps for each factor and their combination. The trend surface map of the number of available rooms throughout the province [Click on the Room Count Surface thumbnail] suggested that the Calgary and Edmonton Regions would have the highest revenue potential of the six provincial destinations.

	Trend Surface Maps
Room Count Surface	Room Rate Surface	Maximum Revenue Surface

Trend surface mapping of room rates (maximum rate at double occupancy) gives a very different picture [Click on the Room Rate Surface thumbnail]. The room rate hot spots are in the Rocky Mountain parks, particularly Jasper. Both Calgary and Edmonton show only moderate revenue potentials.

Combining the two factors by multiplying the number of rooms by the room rate for each accommodation, and mapping the resulting revenue surface [Click on the Maximum Revenue Surface thumbnail], we find the regional impact of getting the most people into bed at the highest price would likely profit Calgary, Edmonton, and then Banff in that order.

Apple Cider Making Machine, Marcus, Washington

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