cbe report final_hr - Haliburton County Community Cooperative Inc

website geocaching.com, there are 1,175,867 caches hidden worldwide with an estimated 4-
5 million people participating in geocaching. In the last month 4,766,296 new logs have been
uploaded onto the website. “The economic power of [geocaching] tourism is often
overlooked. Last year it had an $887 million impact in Monroe County and accounted for
almost 14,000 jobs.” (Geotrail, 2010) It is clearly about discovery and adventure for all ages.
Geo-caching represents but one small area for potential development in regional tourism.
Future goals for this project might include investigating additional, lesser-known ways of
developing tourism. Often rural areas cultivate signature tourism, based on specialty
strengths. Often these can be developed from pre-extant features of the area. If mining is
no longer popular in a given area for example, or is on the decline, then geological tours,
metallurgical society eco-tours and even tours of old mines are potentially marketable
tourism endeavors.
Cultural Tourism
Cultural tourism, like adventure tourism, is about discovery and respect for
the world’s cultural and natural heritage. According to the International Committee on
Cultural Tourism, “cultural tourism is that form of tourism whose object is… the discovery of
monuments and sites… It exerts a very positive effect … [and] contributes to their
maintenance and protection” (Walter, J. 1989: 45).” It is then important for regional selfimage
to develop and keep historical information and stories alive in respect of the past, the
present, and the future generations.
Cultural resources can include old and new buildings, natural and scenic areas,
as well as the way of life of the people that live in an area, their stories and their character.
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