Community Development

The creation of www.westernsouthland.co.nz brings the whole community together to develop the content of their web pages using open source software created by AUT University's New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI).Director of NZTRI, Professor Simon Milne, says the website is like no other. "It's a tourism marketing and development tool as well as a community building instrument for the people and businesses of the area."

Dr Simon Milne was one of a panel of 10 international experts invited to participate in a week long panel designed to generate ideas on the future sustainable development of tourism in the French region of Reunion Island (Indian Ocean) organized by INTA (International Urban Development Association) from June 12-19 2010.

Listen to the podcast of Greig Buckley's seminar. 

Audio File: 

Greig Buckley 25 June 2010.mp3

The workshop on "Sustainable tourism practices for the development of marginal regions" on 11 June 2010 in Trento, Italy,  was a unique opportunity for all the partners involved in the Listen to the Voice of Villages project to come together and share, with the help of international experts, the state of the art of the knowledge on responsible tourism and to analyze the case history of best practices in the organization and marketing of the sustainable rural tourism offer.

The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park opened in 2007 as a world-class tourist attraction designed to engage visitors in authentic cultural experiences with the Siksika People, members of the Blackfoot Confederacy of central Canada. For centuries the Blackfoot knew about Soyopowahko, or Blackfoot Crossing a well-known river crossing essential to follow the migrating herds of buffalo and an important meeting place of historical and cultural significance. Today the Park welcomes approximately 40,000 visitors a year and is the only First Nation owned and operated tourist attraction in the Canadian Badlands.