The case is Queenstown, New Zealand, and Interlake, Switzerland. Bungee jumping is supposedly invented in New Zealand in the 1980’ties. It was brought to Europe much later, by entrepreneurs who worked in the business, and came back to Europe with the invention, first to be implemented in Interlaken. Zorbing – another invention – also travelled over the continents as part of the adventure tourism mobility, that is an ingredient in youth lifestyle.

Blumberg describes the emergence of a full-time, year-round professional labour market that link Queenstown and Interlaken together. The staff – skiing, rafting, jumping, climbing instructers –  can follow the seasons across the hemispheres. The migration of innovations go with this highly flexibility labour market and community of professionals.

Greeland Hotel Actic is offering its guest a special treat: “Would you like accept the challenge of staying in an igloo on the very edge of the Ice Fjord? Right in the front row overlooking the beautiful Arctic nature. From May to October it is possible to stay overnight in one our five unique two-person igloo cabins that are located at the end of a wooden bridge just a short walk from the hotel. Look out across the cliffs, the Disko Bay and watch the colossal icebergs as they drift by. The igloo cabins are inspired by the classic eskimo igloo in shape and design but instead of being made of ice they have an aluminium frame so that when you step inside you are greeted by comfortable and modern facilities like any other hotel room – but the atmosphere is totally different.”

Hotel Kakslakuttanen estbablishes every winter snow igloos. They are part of a whole holiday village of snow, a popular place for weddings and other event. Other  igloos provided byt this hotel are built of glass, and they  are luxurious with own bath, and the temperature is comfortable.

More experiences in Alta Norway where the decor is very well-considered to fit the environment.

 The Igloo Dorfs provide intertesting facilities for skier in the Swiss Alps. the contain examples of artistic snow work.

The Roulotte Retreat has received support from public innovation funds, and the proprietor explains:

“We have found the Tourism Innovation Fund to be so supportive, as well as providing funding to enable us to work with professional companies to how case Roulotte Retreat through website design, recognition, illustration and in other ways that add to our wow factor”.

Picture from the homepage:

The first Modern Toilet Restaurant opened in 2004 in Taipei. It is claimed to be inspired by a cartoon that featured a toilet drawing on a menu. It has been a success with now 11 more branches around Taiwan and one in Mongkok, Hong Kong.

 In Modern Toilet restaurant customers sit at glass tabletops with a sink or bathtub base. In some cases, the tables are next to, or inside, showers. There are rolls of toilet paper on the tables in place of napkins. Drinks are served in mini urinals instead of glasses. Meals are served in bowls—mini toilet bowls. The atmosphere is with that’s a lot more fun.

In Italy, villages and remote areas are being depopulated these years. Young people go to the cities ot seek education and jobs. Left behind is the older part of the population – and a surplus of property. Friuli Venezia Giulia, a hilly and beautiful region in Italy’s northeast,  has a solution to this: The scattered hotel – albergo diffuso.

Ther are plenty of accommodation available in the small villages. They are run by an organisation that ensures the management and marketing.

“Local communes take 10-year leases on the properties, renovate them, rent them out to tourists, and hand them back to the owners at the end of the term. Everyone gains: the villages can put up more tourists; visitors can enjoy hotel-standard comforts at a budget price, and the owners have their second homes done up free of charge.”, as it is stated in an article in the Independent.

The region collaborates with similar areas in Slovenia and Austria in order to ensure a more holitistic exaperience for the visitor.

The business concept is the follwoing: We’ve done all of the hard work for you. At Chien Bleu, we know first-hand that dog-friendly is often anything but. Personally putting countless places to the test, we’ve sought out those that are truly worthy of the title. Being truly welcoming to dogs is not enough. With exceedingly high standards, the service and surroundings must also be of the highest quality to be included in our portfolio”.

Luxury is a key word – for the traveler as well as for the dog. “Our extensive knowledge and insight. Working only with the best, we also understand that the best has many guises and means many different things to many different people. Having personally stayed at each hotel, inn or cottage we work with and having immense attention for detail, we are able to find for you the place that offers the magic and luxury that delights you most.”

Chien Blue attemps to build personal customer relations, and finds it important for the enjoyment and for the thriving of the business. This is how the entrepreneur sees it: “Personal service. At Chien Bleu, we work with each and every client on an individual basis, listening to understand what defines your perfect trip and then not stopping until we’ve found a place which fits your definition. Whether related to the comfort of your pup or ensuring your complete contentment and relaxation, we consider no request to be too big or too small.”

The Smile Land game will allow people around the world to play it on Facebook, which has member users more than 700 million. It also has mini games on many devices to attract a wider group of target tourists. The game’s scores and collectibles will be sent to the main Smile Land game on Facebook of each player. The game has five mini games including;

The first game, Tuk Tuk Racing, on Tuk Tuk driver. Game players will have to drive Tuk Tuk to the final place as fast as possible and they will have to be very careful about things that will block their ways. There are special helpers helping the players reach the final quicker.

The second game, Somtam Sukjai, for iPad users. The Thai cooking game will allow iPad users to download the game application from the iPad store. Players will find and select food ingredients to match those showed on each menu. Thai menus will be gradually showed and players will select right food ingredients in the limited time. At the present, tourists can now play the two mini games of Tuk Tuk Racing and Somtam Sukjai.

The other three mini games— Muay Thai for iPhone users, Siam Tempo for Andriod-based smart phones and Siam Fun Fair for Nokia smart phones, are available for game players in September 2011.

TAT expects that the Smile Land game will become a hit among international tourists and build good understanding and promote the Thai tourism industry among a target group of no less than 1 billion tourists. The game will also help grow a database of international tourists at least two times from 500,000 currently to 1 million tourists by the end of 2011. At the same time, the game will encourage a more frequent access to social networking and mobile application by TAT.

The launching of Smile Land social networking game is considered as an important strategy to move forward digital marketing by TAT to a another step. It is expected that the game will build attractiveness for Thai tourism in a new way of virtual travelling experience. Game players can create and dress up their Avatar themselves before finding all collectibles to meet a mission of more than 200 tourist places in the game. Apart from fun, players will have experiences and awareness toward the value of Thai tourism. The game will attract 2 billion Internet users around the world and 300 million smart phone users.

All of this effort is an important step of TAT in boosting its organization to be truly digitalized to respond to the behavior and media trend of tourists during the change of technology. It will enhance the reputation of Thai tourism and create new travelling experience for tourists and this will eventually draw more tourists to visit Thailand in the future.

The social element is important in skiing, and the system supports this: “Haven’t found the perfect ski buddy yet? Get in contact via your cell phone with other skiers or snowboarders and ride down the slopes together – it’s simply more fun.” The skiers can search for mates for specific activities both at the slopes or at after ski socialising.

More about ITC developments in the Dolomites: Fuchs, M. & Höpken, W. (2011). E-Business horizons in the tourism industry. In Sidali, K.L. et al (eds). Food, agri-culture and tourism. Heidelberg: Springer, pp 140-160.

The goal of travel2change is to capitalize on the potential of travel to make a positive difference in the lives of travelers and local communities alike and to create projects that will have an impact and foster sustainable change. While the organization is rooted in Austria, it seeks to make an impact globally. Find out more about us on http://www.travel2change.org/aboutus.php

Our mission is to

… provide a platform for connecting travelers, local communities, and organizations to create change through purposeful traveling
…create awareness about problems in local communities through our idea challenges
…support our community members in developing their ideas into realizable projects and facilitates collaboration between travelers and locals
…enable travels to experience the winning ideas and provides ongoing support
…foster interactions among travelers, local communities, and organizations to create and exchange knowledge

We recently launched an idea challenge that benefits travelers and local communities. We invite travelers, organizations, and local communities alike to submit project ideas around the theme of water and tourism. The best project suggestions will win free trips and support to help implement the idea. The goal is to create impact and sustainable change for local communities. The challenge is open until 10 July 2011.

How can we travel to create a positive impact on the lives of local communities? Inspire with your idea at www.travel2change.org!

If you have any questions about us, please email to: info@travel2change.org

In order to reach out to our global community, you can also find us on:  facebook.com/travel2change  – twitter.com/travel2change

The Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation has envisaged that the golf courses represent environmental and leisure potentials far beyond the players. In 2011, the organisation published new guidelines for the golf clubs to better align with a need to open up for a multi-functionality.

The guidelines include a number of conceptual innovations, which may be taken on board by the single golf course.

An important issue is biological diversity. Many golf courses could without compromising playing quality integrate flora and fauna diversity; allow water ponds, rough areas, small forests etc. Grass cutting and fertilizing procedures can be changed to support such strategies.

 Leisure diversity implies using the courses for other purposes, for example during the winter season. With an appropriate safety planning, golf courses may contain walking and bicycle trails, picnic areas etc.

 The guidelines include a long list of potential diversification for golf courses, for example:

• Agility for dogs
• Allotment gardens
• Arboreta (collections of trees)
• Archery
• Bee-keeping
• Bird watching
• Boule
• Bowling
• Cinema evenings
• Dancing courses/events – zumba, salsa …
• Dragon flying
• Exhibitions
• Fashion shows
• Fitness training
• Football golf
• Frisbee golf
• Guided tours (nature, culture, archaeology)  
• GPS navigated games
• Gymnastics
• Hiking
• Jogging
• Marathons
• Mini golf
• Model airplane flying
• Model boat sailing
• Mushroom collection
• Orienteering
• Putting competitions
• Riding
• Skiing
• Tobogganing
• Yoga
• Wine tasting

In some regions golf courses are approaching a situation of overcapacity. The measures mentioned here can be seen not only as an attempt to open towards environmental agendas and the needs of other leisure users, but also as a means of financial survival for the clubs. The guidelines emphasise the needs for new collaborative structures and changed attitudes to ensure a success with this endeavour.

 The guidelines refer to some golf courses that have worked with diversification strategies:

• Arendal & Omegn Gofklubb, Norway
• Hässelby Golf, Sweden
• Kjölur Golf, Iceland
• Kristianstad Golf, Sweden
• Københavns Golfklub, Denmark
• Oppegård, Norway
• Smørum Golfcenter, Denmark
• Golfbaan Spaarnwoude, The Netherlands

The tourist attraction National Tourist Routes are scenic roads for exploring Norway’s breathtaking landscapes – comprises 18 selected stretches from north to south. Magnificant mountains, fjords and coastline form the core of the travel experience. The tourists are assisted in the interpretation of the natural phenomena, and the road authorities have carefully worked with the infrastructure to enhance the experience value. Some of the routes lead across nature heritage areas, and in many places it is possible to see dramatic the shifts during the season.

In terms of innovation the Norwegian authorities have included achitecture. Where in many countries, the road infrastructures and the facilities for the travelers are very coincidental and a a matter of private providers’ decresion, the Norwegian strategy is to place a deliberate and massive emphasis on architecture. Bold architecture placed in magnificent natural scenery gives the attraction its special character. Facilities such as viewing platforms, toilet building, sheds, parking areas etc. are included in design which reflect the natural setting of the place.

The national scenic route initiative has website, where all architectural manifestation can be seen. The scenic routes are main attractions, but with the architecture initiative, the “product” has be considerably enhanced, and many visitors come not the least for the architecture.

A documentary report describes the small scale tourism development, for example the Oyster tasting cabin concept: “What we need is to offer true immersion in the authentic maritime world, a complete educational package with boats, cabins and gîtes,” says Hervé Bojon, a fisherman who along with his wife, an oyster farmer, runs an oyster cabin in La Teste de Buch. Oyster cabins are one of the main features and attractions of the Arcachon basin. Each oyster farmer has a cabin in which he stores his equipment, but many are also used for tasting sessions as well as for direct sales. “In-cabin tasting sessions are clearly a good way to promote the product,” says Hervé. “A dozen oysters normally sold for 4.30 euros can make 9.50 euros in the cabin. But this is not enough. We need a more comprehensive approach.” Angelika Hermann and Thierry Beaugendre have already travelled this road. Angelika, an oyster farmer, sells her produce directly at the Toulouse market, but also has a tasting cabin at La Teste. Thierry is an oyster farmer, fisherman and he runs a passenger transport business. Together they have developed a tourist package which combines tasting, education, promotion and awareness: “We welcome groups, not individual tourists,” specifies Angelika. “The tasting session begins with a detailed explanation of oyster farming. This helps people to understand the challenges and the standards of our work. They also hear our message, namely that we must defend traditional oyster farming, which uses oysters born at sea, not in a test tube. The project must ensure that the Arcachon basin remains a breeding site!””

An active partnership has been essential for both the tourism and the food production and for the protective arrangements, according to the report: ”The functioning of the Pays Bassin d’Arcachon – Val de l’Eyre is based on a three-tier system: an operational committee, made up of three elected members representing each inter-municipality; a technical committee, bringing together representatives of the three intercommunal administrations (the Arcachon Basin Mixed Syndicate(SIBA), the Bassin d’Arcachon-Val de l’Eyre Syndicate (SYBARVAL) and the Regional Natural Park of the Landes de Gascogne (PNRLG); and a board, composed of interested parties involved in the implementation of local projects. The Pays principal areas of activity include tourism, culture and urban development. However, it is also carrying out a sustainable development process, through the implementation of local Agenda 21, and a Leader rural development programme, intended to strengthen the links between the coast and the inland areas.”

The learning from this project is that tourism activities are important supplements to food and community initiatives. Hitherto, aquaculture has not been included in tourism initiatives to any substantial extent, but that seems to be changing.

Since 2001 the attraction has added many elements to the range of experiences. In his research article John Blevitt (2004) explains the elements in the communication strategy that has emerged and how the communication is a key issue in the comprehensive innovation of the the project. He concludes: “…Eden is certainly a kaleidoscope of constantly evolving, constantly developing images, voices, stories, performances, smells, emotions, thoughts, transactions and activities. Its own story and core message offers an overall framework for visitor interpretation.” (p 186).  Blevitt addresses the controversies of the development, particularly related to the discussion of agricultural methods: ”….. there are tensions, recognised inconsistencies and apparent contradictions. It can be argued the failure to condemn GM rather than simply acknowledge the unresolved issues is incompatible with its support for sustainable and certainly organic agriculture but in July 2004 the Project announced it would celebrate national organic week by hosting a series of events and activities with the Soil Association. This reinforces the idea of Eden as an enabler, a facilitator, an educator and a forum for discussion. If Eden’s core message articulates a notion of human dependency on plant life then its advocacy of environmental sustainability takes a form that is sometimes both complex and complicated. It is both the medium and the message. Peel off the outer layer and there is a world of contested facts, values and opinions that Eden attempts to influence by becoming a character in the wider story of lifelong learning and sustainability.” (p 186).

Blevitt, J (2004) The Eden Project – making a connection, Museum and Society, 2, 3, 175-189. http://www.le.ac.uk/museumstudies/m&s/Issue%206/Blewitt.pdf

Crafts & Design Center Bornholm – Grønbechs Gård is a private association with only one employee on the payroll.

We are partly subsidized by the municipality and partly commercial. We show art/ craft and design, host conferences and lectures and act as a selling agent for the artist showing with us.

The center is solely run by 40 volunteers, these 60-70 yr old act as the front personnel and are therefore  a rich resource for service innovation. The volunteers come from diverse educational and vocational backgrounds but all share the same pioneer spirit when it comes to the establishment and maintenance of the center.

As the only strategic staff I spend too few hours in front of our customers and rely most of our improvement to input I get from our volunteers. I try to draw one big road for where the center is going in order to direct but still leave space for the volunteers to add their ideas. The volunteers have a solid foundation in the local community which is paramount for the center to broaden.

Most new ideas are therefore concerned with the service and entertainment of local guests. The dialogue with guest in the exhibition rooms are once again inspired by input I get from our volunteers.They know what special needs old and young have regarding print size and placements of information about artist. I try to be very humble in my approach: to listen and act on most of the concepts the front personnel suggest.

Still is a strategy that walks on two feet: planned and emergent, and time with my volunteers staff is always to scarce.

Mai Ørsted, Centerleder Grønbechs Gård

Aarhus by Light from Tobias Ebsen on Vimeo.

The interactive installation is developed in a project called “Digital Urban Living“, which is a collaboration between the city, the university and independent media and entertainment agents. Thus it is an example of creative constrallations that transcend traditional borders and enhance the tourism product.

Grupo PUNTACANA built the first privately owned international airport in the world, as well as a flourishing town where middle-income families and workers live in their own homes and are provided with medical services, a fire department, security, paved roads, water and sewage services, electricity and garbage disposal.

PUNTACANA was also the first resort in the region to construct a water treatment facility. Freshwater used in the resort is treated through the use of anaerobic digestion and settling ponds instead of harsh chemicals. It is then recycled for irrigation of green areas. Potable water is also monitored for quality and safety.
The group built its own industrial laundry facility to handle laundry, not only for its own resort but also for other independent hotels in the area. The machines are powered by heat energy from steam generated in an adjacent electric power plant to conserve electricity. The industrial laundry facility uses that steam in the operation of the drying equipment.

The company employs well over 1,700 people, 99% of whom are of regional Dominican origin, and it invests over US$3,085,000 annually to support their corporate social and environmental responsibility initiatives.

Even before sustainability was a word used in the Travel & Tourism industry, Grupo PUNTACANA made a decision to build an airport that reflected the local culture and had a soft environmental footprint. The international airport, which handles major airlines from all around the world, with up to 250 flights a week, used local stone, wood and thatch as building materials. The group made sure the building was no higher than the surrounding trees, and it opted against air-conditioning (for the tropics, this was a radical decision), choosing instead to use large ceiling fans that it had designed to provide adequate air flow. Trees were left growing through the airport building itself, giving a sense of integration with nature.

To service the airport and its resort, PUNTACANA created a recycling centre which processes 2-3 tons daily of plastic, cardboard, paper, bottles, etc. It also created a highly effective water management system that is overseen by an internal environmental quality control department, geographically distributed to minimise pressure on the aquifer. This modern pumping system controls and helps conserve the amount of water used at the resort.

All water used in the facility is either recycled in the plant operations or treated in the water treatment facility and recycled in irrigation.

PUNTACANA established the first golf course in the Caribbean to use paspalum hybrid grass, which can be irrigated with salt water, further saving ground water resources. This led to a reduction of over a million gallons a year needed for golf course irrigation and led to the adoption of paspalum grass by resorts throughout the Caribbean. To share best practices, PUNTACANA helped to launch the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), and PUNTACANA’s CEO was its first president and remains on its governing board.

The resort has also developed the Partnership for Ecologically Sustainable Coastal Areas. This project is a public-private partnership to protect and restore threatened coral reef ecosystems. The partnership has pioneered eight marine education modules in three schools in the Punta Cana region to teach basic concepts of coastal ecology and conservation. Over 450 local students and 11 teachers have participated in the programme since 2007.

In 2005, as part of its social outreach programmes, Grupo PUNTACANA began working with the nearby Rural Clinic of Verón to improve free healthcare services provided in the region. The clinic is the only primary care facility serving the local community.

To help educate tourists on destination stewardship, guests are encouraged to learn about PUNTACANA’s conservation efforts and sustainable development. The company published a book, A Natural Way of Business: Grupo PUNTACANA, An Unusual Partnership in Sustainable Tourism, which is available to guests in each room. Punta Cana now represents 25% of the foreign exchange for the entire Dominican Republic and has the highest per capita income and lowest level of unemployment in the country.

The Diablo Trust is an innovative approach to rural planning in Arizona between 1998 and 2000, called the “Growing Smarter Legislation”. Landowners were encouraged to petition for the establishment of Land Trusts that would effectively assume planning responsibility for rural faming lands and adjacent tenures within Arizona. With the approval of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors the Diablo Trust was formed in 2003. Subsequently a planning meeting held at the Flying M Ranch in Fall 2003 and the Diablo Canyon Rural Planning Area (RPA) was formed. It was the first Trust of its kind in Northern Arizona and effectively transferred control of the planning and permitting process for the Diablo Canyon Area to the Diablo Trust.

The goal of Diablo Trust is to create a range of economic opportunities in support of private landholders and traditional uses while preserving open spaces for future generations. The sub-goals are:

• Sustaining open space;
• Living in balance with biodiversity;
• Producing high quality food;
• Restoring watersheds;
• Creating stable, living soils; and
• Achieving community.

Drivers of Innovation

The key driver for the formation of the Diablo Canyon RPA was necessity, and fear that the traditional cattle ranches and the families that run them would not survive. They aimed to protect traditional agriculture by preserving farmlands and developing options for value-adding products, tourism and alternative land-uses.  Two families, the Metzgers and the Prossers have ranch properties adjoining Diablo Canyon and they both recognized that they needed to join forces to preserve their land and the traditions connected to those lands. They also recognized the need to communicate with the local community and conservation groups regarding their efforts to preserve grasslands not only for cattle, but also for the wildlife that inhabits the area.

Antelope, elk and deer co-habit with cattle on their properties and they have made considerable effort to protect wildlife habitat by working with the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Besides practical measures such as fencing cattle out of wetlands and using rest-rotation grazing during drought periods, they have also taken some innovative steps to incorporate, collaborate and communicate with the wider community under the banner of the Diablo Canyon RPA. Finally, there was a desire to pass on a viable business operation to future generations of family farmers, which in itself is a key dimension of economic and social sustainability.

Process of Innovation

There were two steps involved in this innovative approach to saving and sustaining land and traditions in the area. First was establishing the Diablo Trust as the entity that would assume planning responsibility for the area. This was undertaken by the Metzger and Prosser families, owners of the two long-time ranches in the area, the Flying M and the Bar T Bar Ranches. They began a process of petitioning the County Board for approval to form a rural planning area. The second step was to develop the Diablo Regional Plan which would encompass all of the multiple land uses within this area of approximately 426,000 acres. The area was a “checkerboard” of different land uses and private, state and federal tenures, and ranged from forests to high desert country (see figure 1). This area in north-east Arizona is the heartlands of the American West, once characterized by the Ranchers and cowboys who were the stuff of legends and the source of images portrayed through books and movies of the “wild west”.

Now, there are many competing lands uses and the process of planning and managing the land involved many stakeholders, as well as integration with the County Comprehensive Plan. There was a need to educate the public of the importance of public land ranching and the environmental stewardship practices that ranchers had in place. A weekend workshop was the venue for the ranches to recruit new members of the trust, such as the Sierra Club (and American environmental organization), who were not aware of the ranchers’ efforts with regard to land management and preservation.

With regard to commercial operations, a variety of land use options were considered worthy for inclusion in the Diablo Regional Plan. All the options had a commercial focus and some had additional environmental benefits and included:

• Value Added Beef
• Tourism, Recreation and Education
• Wood Products
• Energy Development
• Housing

Examples of each of these options are cited in the plan and include fresh or frozen beef products, “dude ranches” and other tourism, recreation and education opportunities, firewood products, wind power generation and housing development.  However, each option presented their own challenges and barriers that limit their economic viability and/or cultural desirability.  These will be discussed in the next section.

Barriers to Innovation

There were many barriers for these farming families, not the least of which was the global trend toward intensive farming of beef in feedlots leading to the failure of traditional farming methods such as cattle ranching.  Another less tangible barrier was the perception held by members of the Diablo Trust that “they could do anything” on their lands, which turned out not to be the case.

The production of high quality, natural or organic beef for niche markets had been done in other parts of the West, and three examples — Babbitt Ranches, Oregon Country Beef and Ervin’s Natural Beef — were cited. A key decision is whether to provide the beef product in fresh or frozen form. Getting these products to market would require considerable investment in infrastructure and distribution systems which presented a major financial barrier.

Tourism, recreation and education also presented many barriers. Hosting and accommodating visitors on the ranches would require a huge effort by farmers, who are already busy with their farming activities. Other on-farm activities involving recreation and education programs were also considered, but their small scale meant that they may not be commercially viable. The cost associated with public liability insurance is also a major barrier to entry into this form of tourism, especially if an authentic experience of ranching and all of the hazards associated with it are to be offered. Finally, the presentation and communication skills of the local workers who would work in tourism are also a constraint.

Wood product production was considered as an innovation that would address two issues. Firstly it would reduce the area of Juniper and Pinion trees, making more land available for grazing. Juniper was an invasive species that was destroying grasslands and a program of reduction was already in place. Secondly it provides a source of commercial firewood production to meet demand in the cold Northern Arizona winters. However, tree-clearing and firewood collection is highly labour-intensive and there are many other sources of fuel for home log-fires, including packaged, manufactured logs with guaranteed three-hour burn times and even with crackling that imitates the sound of real burning wood!

Commercial banks of wind turbines that generate power for the grid can be found on many farming lands, and the rent that these sites generate for land owners is substantial. However, they have a tendency to ruin the rural vistas and aesthetics and as such meet with considerable resistance whenever they are proposed in open landscapes. View sheds in Northern Arizona can extend for 60 miles or more and in themselves provide a great sense of space for the millions of tourists that view the area on the way to world-class attractions such as the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.  Locating Wind Turbines on farms requires consideration of not only engineering factors such as proximity to the grid, but also aesthetic considerations and effects on vistas and view sheds.

Finally, housing development perhaps presents that biggest issue for farmers, as land sold off for housing will be lost to farming forever. All farmers, no matter where they live, want to retain or indeed expand their land holdings in order to attain economies of scale and more economically viable farm production.  Partial sale of farmlands would however enable farmers to keep their Ranch houses and the majority of their lands, so a careful plan for developing land has to be put in place.

Innovation can be both necessary and practical and will not always require extensive research and new technology, especially when it comes to dealing with the universal problems of rural land management. By working with local, state and federal agencies, community and conservation groups and each other, these two long-time farming families have taken considerable steps to improve land management practices, conserve habitat for wildlife, maintain their farming traditions and ensure that the land remains representative of all of the values associated with the West.

The benefits of this revival extend well beyond providing visitors with local flavors, as these foods are linked with preserving traditional farming practices, conserving areas for wildlife, educating youth, keeping food pure and free from genetic modification, maintaining biodiversity and protecting cultural traditions.

Drivers of Innovation

Tasting Arizona believes that wild and traditional foods are good for everybody – producers, consumers and tourists. In addition to the community benefits there are indications that wild foods have previously unknown health benefits.  Certain foods such as white corn are central to traditional cultural ceremonies yet these pure varieties are under threat from cross-pollination with genetically modified varieties of corn.

Hence the drivers of innovation in Tasting Arizona can be summarized as:

• Maintaining food purity and biodiversity;
• Protecting local cultures and traditions;
• Conserving natural areas;
• Reviving farm lands; and
• Educating the public (especially youth) about local foods.

Process of Innovation

The first step in reviving the traditional and wild foods was to create a food network with local people to:

• Bring back local farmer’s markets;
• Support local farms;
• Fostering of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs);
• Demonstrate demand for local foods;
• Grow food in community gardens; and
• Contribute to organizations that are helping maintain and strengthen food systems.

Bringing back local farmer’s markets provides a place for celebration of local foods and interaction between producers, restaurants and consumers. Supporting local farms involves identifying traditional food varieties, orchard restoration, sponsorship of festivals and food events, inviting chefs to prepare local produce and creating food and wine trails.  These activities will enable visitors to discover local foods which will increase demand and encourage more producers to get involved. Engaging with youth in creating and farming community gardens that grow local varieties of produce is a tool that is used to educate the local community, increase demand and strengthen supply. Tasting Arizona is also introducing wild foods to visitors and residents in familiar ways, such as cookies made from Mesquite flour which is naturally sweet. This has been so successful that demand now outstrips supply. Another initiative is ‘Wild Food’ walks. These walks provide educational opportunities for linking wild foods to wildlife and preserving natural areas.

CSAa is a direct connection between local farmers and the people who eat their produce. The aim is to foster a mutual commitment: communities of eaters commit to supporting a local farmer for a season. In return, CSA participants receive fresh, seasonal produce—sharing in the risks and bounty of farming.

The declaration of themed National Heritage Areas has provided an opportunity for the consortium to access funding for the development of tours and the production of maps of farming and wild food areas in Arizona and neighbouring States. In this way, tourists can be engaged in discovering new foods and support local producers.

Barriers to Innovation

The challenges are many. First both natural and farming lands are under increasing pressure from larger producers and non-local produce, to satisfy demand from customers who have become used to buying out-of-season and non-local produce.

Second there are limitations of the scale of production that prevent traditional and wild food producers from achieving continuity and volume of supply. Third there is as yet no distribution system in place for local foods.

Fourth locally produced food has been declining as water is being diverted for other uses. Fifth there is a lack of place-based agriculture and agricultural diversity as the trend to source mass-produced foods from outside of the local area continues.

This case demonstrates that a creative and innovative approach to food production can not only enhance tourism experiences, but it can protect local traditions, restore farmlands, maintain natural and agricultural biodiversity and move farming and native communities toward sustainability of their land, traditions, culture and community. Collaboration is the key to renewing food systems and creating local networks that produce, protect and promote traditional and wild foods.

The video goes behind the screen and explains the technology.

Big and interactive screens are increasingly used in tourism, in order to create experience, animate and inform. For example the Maze Funhouse in Chicago has installed a interactive floor for children. The floor animates the fire of Chicago and involves the kids in the firefighting.