The Outdoor Recreation Council of BC (ORBC) has launched a toolkit to help local governments and organizations gather and use data for recreation planning.
Soraya Olszewski, ORBC Communication and Engagement Officer says the new resource is called Conducting and Using Visitor and Recreational User Research.
“The tools will help us understand who is using outdoor recreation spaces and how. This will ensure future recreation and tourism are planned in a way that protects nature while creating great experiences for people,” said Olszewski.
This new toolkit can help communities make meaningful and well-informed plans for the future.
“Without recreation data, groups and communities are just guessing and consultants can cost a lot of money,” said Olszewski.
“This can help us understand how recreation contributes to local economies, help make a better case for funding, better understand issues between user groups and maybe identify collaboration opportunities. This way, we can gather more insights on how we can encourage visitors to stay longer and spend locally.”
The Conducting and Using Visitor and Recreational User Research toolkit can also save community budgets.
“This toolkit offers guided access to approaches we have used in more than 30 years of consulting,” noted Michele Archie, principal of The Harbinger Consultancy, who designed the toolkit.
“For many communities and recreation groups, spending $10,000 or $30,000 or more on an economic study isn’t in the cards. Our aim is to help them build their own capacity to generate their own insights and put them to work.”
ORBC officials say the resource is made to meet the needs of small and mid-sized outdoor recreation organizations, First Nations and local governments.
Olszewski says the toolkit could be a game-changer for outdoor recreation in communities with a tourism-based economy like Nelson, Creston, Grand Forks, Trail and Castlegar.
“In past polls that we ran, outdoor recreation is a huge indicator of why people are visiting the Kootenays and why people are moving to these areas,” said Olszewski.
“That said, I think there are huge gaps in the data, so I don’t think we fully understand how significant it is. So, it’s important to gather the numbers that support outdoor recreation and show communities why this should be prioritized by decision-makers.”
The new toolkit can be found here.
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