Town planners, elected officials, and geographers from around the world will converge in Banff next week to consider the future of mountain tourism destinations. From June 14 to 18, The Banff Centre will host Sustainable Mountain Communities, a conference on environmental sustainability for mountain areas impacted by tourism and amenity migration. The conference will concentrate on four key issues facing mountain tourism communities: managing the quantity, type, and rate of growth; minimizing air, water, and soil pollution; reducing resource consumption; and developing sustainable transportation for people and goods.

Sustainable Mountain Communities is organized by Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre, and is sponsored by the Town of Banff and Parks Canada.

One of the discussions, led by Dr. Dianne Draper, will focus on the tourism growth and water sustainability issues facing mountain communities. For the past 25 years, Dr. Draper has been teaching environmental, resource management and tourism courses in Canadian universities. As the Professor and Head of the Geography Department at the University of Calgary, she has focused her research on quality of life issues in communities working toward sustainable tourism. Dr. Draper will be part of a panel discussion on preventing resource waste and pollution in this fragile environment.

The Conference will also examine how mountain communities cope with the impact of hosting a major public event – the Olympic Games. As Whistler, B.C. continues their bid to host part of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the conference will examine the experience of Park City, Utah - the hosts of alpine events at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Park City’s Director of Public Affairs & Communications, Myles C. Rademan, will outline the impact of the games on Park City. Rademan was not only the Director of Information for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, he was also an Olympic Torch Bearer.

Elected officials, town planners, environmentalists, educators, parks administrators, and business stakeholders from several countries, including Canada, the United States, Japan, Switzerland, New Zealand, Austria and Australia, will be attending the conference.

The Banff Centre is Canada’s centre for creative excellence in the arts, leadership development, mountain culture, and conferences. Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre promotes understanding and appreciation of the world's mountain places by creating opportunities for people to share – and find inspiration in – mountain experiences, ideas and visions.

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Other Conference participants/topics will include:

• The Whistler Experience
  Mayor Hugh O’Reilly, Resort Municipality of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
  Shannon Gordon, Sustainability Coordinator, Resort Municipality of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
• The Natural Step Process
  Chad Park, Sustainability Advisor, Natural Step Canada
  Pong Leung, Sustainability Advisor, Natural Step Canada
• Sustainability Problems in Tourism
  Ralf Buckley, Professor & Director, International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Griffith University, Australia
• Zero Waste – An Achievable Goal for Sustainable Mountain Communities
  Julie Dickinson, Manager of Zero Waste New Zealand Trust, New Zealand
• Milestones in the Search for Environmentally Sustainable Mountain Communities
  Design Prototypes: Successes, Failures, Obstacles and Trends
  Sherry Dorward, Owner - Landscape Architectural Design Practice, Colorado, U.S.A.
• Successes and Challenges: Managing Growth in the Sierra Nevada
  Timothy Duane, Associate Professor of Environmental Planning and Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
• Water Quality as an Input to Development Policy
  Dr. Donald A. Friend, Associate Professor of Geography and Director of Earth Science Programs at Minnesota State University, USA.
• Ethical Considerations in Sustainable Tourism
  Simon Hudson, Associate Professor, Haskayne School of Business, the University of Calgary, Canada
• Transportation Issues and Solutions in and around Jackson Hole, Wyoming
  Margie Lynch, Community Planning Director, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Wyoming, U.S.A.
• Growth Management: The Banff Experience
  Randall McKay, Manager of Planning and Development, Town of Banff, Canada
• Car-Free Tourism in Austrian Mountain Towns
  Dr. Romain Molitor, Consulting Engineer, Vienna, Austria
• Managing Growth and Development, the Grindelwald Experience
  Margrit Steuri, Town Councillor, Grindelwald, Switzerland
• Sustainable Water Utilities
  Dennis Westhoff, Senior Water Resources Engineer, Alberta, Canada
• Branding Your Community: Sustainable Tourism Starts with Marketing
  Peter Williams, Director, Centre for Tourism Policy and Research, Simon Fraser University, Canada
• Growth Management Longterm: Lessons and challenges from Aspen, Colorado
  Julie Ann Woods, Community Development Director, City of Aspen, Colorado, U.S.A.