Tourists want to live where they play

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Contact:

Peter Williams, 604.291.3103 (office) 604.922.1954 (h); peterw@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 604.291.4323

Imagine having your holiday guests show up next summer – and move in. For some B.C. communities, tourists are becoming residents in record numbers.

The result is changing the make-up of communities – not only driving up housing demand and prices but the need for more high end services and businesses to cater to the wants of new neighbourhoods of baby boomers.

Peter Williams, director of SFU’s centre for tourism policy and research, is studying the demographic trend. He calls it amenity-driven tourist migration, and believes it has only just begun – and will spread. “These are people who have been naturally drawn to areas like the Okanagan or Vancouver Island for their vacations for years, and for more of them, the time becomes right to consider, ‘why not just move here?’ It becomes part of the early retirement thought process, as well as a lifestyle choice for a whole other group of middle-agers who can work anywhere thanks to technology.”

Williams’ study is comparing regions of the Colorado Rockies — particularly the Vail region — with places like Whistler, the Central Okanagan and Qualicum Beach. “We are particularly interested in the types of housing, health and retail services shifts going on in these places and suggest there is range of economic, social and environmental implications that they create,” says Williams. “The retail structure in these communities presents one of the biggest challenges, given the changing nature of businesses that the new residents seeking high quality environments demand.”

Williams is also examining what effect community changes may have on policy issues for managing such growth towards regional and community goals.

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