Kanata: Sustainable tourism in Canada? Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic in a historic perspective

Abstract: The thesis will be centred on the topic of tourism in Canada and the steps the tourism industry took in handling the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of this thesis will be to examine how Canadian tourism has evolved through time and analyse the way Indigenous tourism has grown despite its limited support. The main research questions addressed will include how has Canadian tourism adapted to the crises of the Covid-19 pandemic? How have the snowbird, Nature and Indigenous tourism groups been impacted by Covid-19 and how can we understand the history of these forms of tourism? What old and new debates were provoked by the Covid pandemic? What strategies were put in place to mitigate effects and how did historical structures of colonialism affect mitigation? The thesis is built using a series of academic texts, newspaper sources, and reports published by tourism and Indigenous tourism associations. The text will be approached through a historical perspective using the postcolonial theory and Adaptive co-management. The case studies analyses of Nature and Indigenous tourism are important as they represent tourism in Canada and illustrate the effects of colonialism stressing the need for reconciliation. The text will conclude with a look forward and a potential path tourism can take, learning from the Covid pandemic, to become more sustainable.