Overtourism and its discontents: forty years of authoring the tourism landscape of Tofino and Clayoquot Sound.

Drs. White and Anthon received a Research and Professional Development grant to explore the tourism landscape in Tofino, Canada from a model of touristic development and over-development.

Tofino, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, has exhibited rapid growth in tourist visitation over the past four decades, particularly in the last ten years. The combined attractions of ecotourism in Clayoquot Sound, west coast surfing beaches, and the Long Beach section of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve have led to a million tourists visiting a community of 2600 in 2017, resulting in strains on infrastructure and affecting the resident’s quality of life. This study establishes a model of touristic development and over-development. The main focus is on the concept of ‘tourism landscape authorship,’ which conceptualizes the process by which tourism landscapes are created, change and evolve. In the circumstance of Tofino, a relatively successful process of contestation with productivist resource managers has resulted in the protection of the landscape quality of the region. The study will investigate the transition to a post-productivist landscape characterized by increasing tourism impacts on infrastructure and quality of life, and mitigation options for the community.