Duane Hicks
Northern communities that have been the victims of mill closures and similar economic hardships increasingly are looking to tourism to reinvent themselves.
But are small businesses open to this shift in focus. And if so, how ready are they?
Nicholina Youroukos, who recently completed her Masters in Environmental Studies in Nature-Based Recreation & Tourism at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, spoke about her work to answer these questions during the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce’s general membership meeting last Tuesday night.
Youroukos said rural communities in much of the developed world have turned to tourism for its potential in addressing the decline of traditional extractive industries such as forestry and mining, and the consequent negative impacts on the economy and population.
Many northern communities continue to rely on primary industry sectors such as forestry and mining, with these sectors accounting for 5.5 percent of the total employment in Northwestern Ontario.
But between 2003-09, 48,000 mill layoffs occurred in more than 200 communities across Canada.
With the downturn in the forestry sector, and despite recent surges in mining exploration and activity, Youroukos said economic diversification still is required for rural areas to ensure sustainability—and rural tourism could be part of that.
Youroukos wanted to find out if small businesses east of Thunder Bay, namely Nipigon, Red Rock, and Dorion, were ready for tourism or even motivated to attract tourists.
So two years ago, she underwent a study of the three neighbouring communities.
All three had been severely impacted by mill closures over the past decade, and their community leaders were looking at ways to diversify their economic base with tourism being one of the possibilities.
“I was essentially seeing these things from the business owners’ perspective,” Youroukos explained in an interview after her presentation, which was attended by about 30 people at La Place Rendez-Vous.
“Past research has focused on community members—mayor, economic development officers—and kind of thrown in the business owners,” she noted.
“But this is to focus exclusively on what business owners think of tourism—it’s what do they think of tourism, and are they ready for it and what opportunities and obstacles do they face?
“Referring back to my original research question, what did they think of tourism, they’re open to tourism but at all different levels,” Youroukos said of her findings.
“Some felt tourism was a poor cousin; it’s going to keep this economic activity happening until something bigger and better comes along,” she noted.
“And yet some were saying this is the only solution to our economic problems.
“They were open to it, some were ready for it, but the opportunities were just hidden in all the obstacles,” she added.
Youroukos found the small businesses in her study area needed governance, a local and regional business network, collaboration amongst accommodation (motel) owners, and innovation at the business and network levels.
Youroukos did her data research in the summer of 2011, and things have changed since then. Some new businesses have opened, the Chamber of Commerce has changed its name and is rebranding itself, and the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area is developing.
But the same time, some other businesses are closing.
Youroukos clarified her role is leave it up to the local businesses to make any connections between the situation in these three communities and the Fort Frances area.
But being acquainted with the Fort Frances area (she is the granddaughter of the late Bill and Rita Sieders, and has several relatives living here), Youroukos did note there are both similarities and differences.
For example, both areas have had a strong reliance on pulp and paper mills. Both also have an abundance of natural resources, such as trails and lakes.
At the same time, Nipigon and Red Rock had their mills permanently closed while the one here is running at a limited capacity.
As well, the population in Fort Frances is much larger and the number of businesses is far greater.
“What can be applied is these concepts of looking at innovation—how can people innovate their businesses, are they using marketing, what kind of products are they marketing, what kind of customer service are they offering?” said Youroukos.
“And then there’s the idea of networking, working together,” she added. “These business owners know they cannot do it themselves.
“Fort Frances itself is not a destination,” Youroukos stressed. “But if you throw Fort Frances, International Falls, Emo—start looking outside the town itself—then that’s a tourist destination.
“People in Nipigon knew, ‘There’s not enough to keep people here for a day. They have to go to Red Rock, go to Dorion, look at the Ouimet Canyon,’” she noted.
“They started seeing the area as a region.”
Youroukos said it is positive to see the different activities the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce has started, ranging from “Business After Hours” and the recent Business & Community Expo to a workshop on customer service here May 7 and working on a border initiative with the local BIA and Falls Chamber of Commerce.
“From what I can take from my research, and what the Chamber is doing, these are steps in the right direction,” she remarked.
“I don’t want to tell people what to do—I want people to start thinking and discussing,” Youroukos reasoned. “That’s my main goal, to start the discussion so that people start thinking in a different way and then start acting.
“I could see this in my communities I did research in, and I can see it here—people are ready for things to start happening,” she added.
“They’re getting anxious—they want to start seeing the tourists or moving forward.”
Abut 30 Chamber members attended the meeting.
