Welcome to
The Trail Research Hub Digest |
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A Note from Our Chair: Welcome to Volume 5 of Our Newsletter
Outreach Summary: Presentation in the American Trails Webinar Series Outreach Summary: Participation in the Recreation NB Trail Development Summit Trail Update: The Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail Research Update: Summer 2023 Collaborative Research and Teaching Trip to Germany Research Update: Call for Academic Abstracts - Geographies and Mobiliti Hiking Trail Research Hub Blog: Sharing Insights Between Newsletters |
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A NOTE FROM OUR CHAIR
Welcome to Our New Subscribers! |
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Kelsey Johansen, PhD Chair, the Trail Research Hub |
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Hello and Welcome to the 5th Edition of the Trail Research Hub Digest, our bi-annual newsletter, were we share updates from across the Trail Research Hub's research, education, and outreach initiatives.
I'd like to take a minute to welcome our new Newsletter subscribers, many of whom were introduced to us through our recent webinar with American Trails. In case you missed it, we provide an update on the webinar below, including how it came about through our partnership with the Canadian Trails Federation and share links to watch the recording. In this volume of our newsletter, we also discuss our engagement with the Recreation NB | Loisir NB Trail Development Summit and provide an update on the work being done by the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail, including how they are navigating the challenges of collecting visitor use data. We wrap up the newsletter with two research updates, one summarizing my Summer 2023 Collaborative Research and Teaching Trip to Germany, and the second a call for academic abstracts, related to the geographies and mobilities of hiking, to be presented at the 2024 International Geographic Congress in Dublin, Ireland. At the end of the newsletter, please click on the link to share your thoughts about upcoming Blog posts and Blog post themes. Happy Trails, Kelsey |
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OUTREACH SUMMARY
The Trail Research Hub presents in the American Trails 'Advancing Trails Webinar Series' |
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Kelsey Johansen, PhD
Chair, the Trail Research Hub |
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Jane McCulloch President, Canadian Trails Federation and
Researcher / Community Liaison (Atlantic Canada) with the Trail Research Hub |
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Last month, the Trail Research Hub participated in the American Trail's Advancing Trails Webinar Series delivering a talk on 'Growing Trail-Based Research and Evidence-Based Practice in Canada'. The primary aim of the webinar was to introduce the Trail Research Hub, and its aims and objectives to a wider audience, while providing a high-level overview of our recent research, education, and outreach work to demonstrate how we are contributing to growing research and evidence-based practice in the Canadian trails sector. |
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American Trail's Advancing Trails Webinar Series Event Poster |
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It was very well received, with over 500 attendees tuning into the webinar live on either ZOOM or YouTube Live. The webinar also generated some interesting conversations with trail operators via the embedded Q and A Chatbox, and since then we have been fielding email inquiries and requests for information through our website. If you were unable to attend the Webinar, you can watch the recording, and access the slide materials here. |
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Thank You to all the Attendees of our American Trail's Advancing Trails Webinar on Growing Trail-Based Research and Evidence-Based Practice in Canada |
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American Trails 'Advancing Trails Webinar Series' Logo |
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The opportunity to present in the American Trails 'Advancing Trails Webinar Series' came about through our ongoing partnership with the Canadian Trails Federation. This webinar was the first of three Canadian webinars showcasing the work of organizations across the Canadian trails sector. The next webinar in the mini-series is November 9th, 2023, and explores 'Indigenous Placemaking Along Canadian Trails' . It is being co-presented by: Jane McCulloch, President, Canadian Trails Federation, Luke Wassesjig, Tourism Manager, Wikwemikong Development Commission, and Thomas A. Schoen, CEO, First Journey Trails. In the webinar, attendees will learn how indigenous trail operators in Canada have used trails to showcase traditional cultural experiences, ancient canoe routes, traditional culinary experiences, indigenous storytelling, and much more. Registration for the webinar is free, and both closed captions and learning credits will be available. |
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OUTREACH SUMMARY
The Trail Research Hub participates in the
Recreation NB | Loisir NB Trail Development Summit |
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Kelsey Johansen, PhD
Chair, the Trail Research Hub |
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Jane McCulloch Researcher / Community Liaison (Atlantic Canada) with the Trail Research Hub |
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The Recreation NB | Loisir NB Trail Development Summit |
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Hosted and organized by Recreation NB | Loisir NB with support from the Government of New Brunswick's Tourism Heritage and Culture Branch, the two day event catered to trail builders, trail operators, and trail managers from the various trail organizations in New Brunswick, as well as municipal staff charged with trail construction and maintenance. The first day of the event included workshops and educational sessions led by industry experts, and served as an opportunity to share experiences, best practices and challenges within the industry as well as being a platform for government to present and share resources (trails strategy, trail classification, trail tourism readiness criteria, funding opportunities, etc.) with industry. The second day shifted the focus to experiential learning and knowledge sharing with attendees getting outside, onto local trails, bridging theory and practice, while engaging with equipment, technology, and more. The event wrapped up with a 'world cafe' that fostered meaningful conversations and created insights among small groups of participants through structured dialogue, and knowledge sharing and exploration of complex topics, such as: winter maintenance, accessibility / accessible trails, programming on trails, and risk management. |
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Killarney Lake Lodge, location of the Recreation NB | Loisir NB Trail Development Summit |
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On Friday morning, Kelsey presented on 'Performance Management: How to Collect Data That Matters'. Trails are essential tourism and outdoor recreation infrastructure and provide a good return on investment. However, their value is not always understood, or easily communicated, outside of the trail community. Trail research, particularly in the form of performance measurement, can help trail organizations, and individuals championing trails, to tell more compelling stories that speak directly to the benefits of their organization, volunteers, trails/trail building initiatives, and related trail-based events and programs |
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Kelsey's Presentation on Performance Measurement at the
Recreation NB | Loisir NB Trail Development Summit |
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This session, which focused on designing performance measurement initiative for small non-profit trail organizations, explored how individuals, or organizations working in trails can use existing resources to collect data that matters even if they do not have trail counters, access to the newest technology, or a large research budget. By attending the session, participants gained an understanding of other ways trail data can be collected, what data is worth collecting, and how to use their data to make evidence-based decisions to support their trail, and / or trail organization's strategic goals and objectives. |
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Attendees at the Recreation NB | Loisir NB Trail Development Summit |
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The talk was delivered to a great group of trails, recreation, and tourism professionals and lead to a wonderful discussion about how non-profits can develop their own performance measurement iniatives. If you were unable to attend the Summit, you can read the related Blog post on 'Performance Management: How to Collect Data That Matters!' here. |
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Collective Impact: Trail Industry Approach Panel |
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Later in the afternoon on Friday, Jane moderated a panel discussion on Collective Impact. Collective impact occurs in the trail industry when a group of stakeholders from various organizations come together with a common agenda to address a pressing social, environmental, economic, and / or trail-based problem. The collective impact approach focuses on creating long-term and sustainable solutions, with a primary aim of ending isolated impact where solutions are traditionally short term and benefit a limited number of trail stakeholders. The panel discussion featured Micha Fardy, Executive Director, Friends of Fundy, Marc Leger, Regional Trails Coordinator, Plan 360, Southeast Regional Service Commission, and Andre Arsenault, President, Fredericton Trails Coalition. |
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If you were unable to attend the Summit, you can read one of our related Blog Posts on 'Trails, Social Enterprise, and Collective Impact: Insights from the Literature' here. |
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TRAIL UPDATE The Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail |
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Kirsten Spence
Group of Seven Project Coordinator and
Researcher / Community Liaison (Ontario) with the Trail Research Hub |
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The Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail is wrapping up another successful operations season which was extremely busy with visitors, trail maintenance projects, capital construction projects, and programming. As this project is in year eight of development, we are starting to see a return on investment through increased visitation and specifically, people visiting the Marathon area solely to hike the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail. |
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View from Painter's Peak along the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail |
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We are currently tracking our visitation using trail counters, and other means. As our trail counters are not always unreliable, due to age and other factors, we are in the process of fundraising to purchase newer more dependable devices. We anticipate adding that data to our visitation reports in 2024. This has led to the need to track visitation using secondary strategies in the interim. As we do not have a trail permit purchasing process, we have been tracking trail visitation in a number of ways, including: visits to our office and our project partners, attendees to our programs and hikes, website traffic, travel planning inquiries, and social media tags. Office visits increased over the summer as people dropped by to obtain direct trail information from our staff. This has been a great opportunity for both staff and visitors; it is motivational to hear how much people enjoy their experience in the area, ask direct questions, and gain feedback on what drew them to visit, to hike, etc. We also tracked increased visitation through our project partners. For example, our local museum, the Marathon and District Historical Society and Museum, saw over 460 visitors from Canada, the USA, France, and Ireland. Museum staff noted that “more than half of the museum visitors had mentioned visiting the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail while in the area”. Many visitors planned to stay for between a few days up to a full week’s vacation to hike and explore the Marathon area. Information requests through our website came from trail users across Northern Ontario (from Dryden to Muskoka), Southern Ontario (Hamilton, the Greater Toronto Area, Barrie, Orillia), Western Canada and from the USA (Minneapolis, Texas, Illinois), as well as internationally (France). This led to redesigning our website to deliver trip planning information, and we are currently beta testing our interpretive app for launch in 2024. |
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Group of Seven Moments of Algoma Painter's Easel Information Board
Outside the Marathon and District Historical Society and Musuem |
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Another visitation trend we saw in 2023 was a greater number of artists visiting the region. Many came exclusively to Marathon to stand where the Group of Seven stood and reinterpret the landscape they painted. Most of this visitation tracking information came through social media (Facebook and Instagram), and was generated after we were tagged in their posts. From the tags, we know of five artists that came to paint while hiking the Group of Seven Trail this summer. Our Social Media channels are the main way many artists discovered the Group of Seven Trail. Many of the artists indicated they are planning to return, and we anticipate that this is will be a growing visitor market. We also held a number of painting courses this year, attracting people from Northwestern Ontario (Thunder Bay to Marathon). While these courses are fundraisers, they also support local businesses and local artists providing the instruction and attract new trail users and art tourists. We will be hosting more painting courses in the future covering all levels of skill and diverse mediums. |
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Informational Poster for the September 2023 Group of Seven Painting Workshop with local artist, and Summer 2023 G7 Trail Crew Leader James McGarry |
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In March 2023, we guided a film crew from Paris, France who are producing a documentary focused on Lawren Harris’ time painting on the Northshore of Lake Superior, specifically in Coldwell. This three-part documentary will be released in France and Germany in March 2024. We anticipate more of these types of requests for guiding, from other media companies, bloggers and travel writers, as the trail is completed. We welcome the additional interest they generate in visiting the trail, and associated Group of Seven painting sites. |
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Film Crew out Filming on the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail |
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This year, we also partnered with Pukaskwa National Park to deliver a number of presentations on our project to park visitors. This led to more trail visitation as park users ventured outside the park boundary to explore the wider Marathon area. We gave 5 presentations over the summer and our trail crew spoke with many of the attendees out on the trail afterwards. |
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View out to Hattie's Cove from the Pukaskwa National Park Visitor Information Centre |
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We also launched a Supportive Business program with local businesses and provided signage that indicates that business supports the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail along with a QR Code that when scanned will take people to our website. This also provides us with the location which that phone is registered to. We had scans from as far away as the USA states of California and Virgina and across Canada (Burnaby to Toronto/Greater Toronto Area). |
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Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail Supportive Business Sign
Proudly Displayed in Local Business' Front Windown |
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To more established trail organizations, these numbers may seem modest but Marathon is a small town (population 3,200) that is focused mainly on mining and forestry, as key economic drivers, not tourism. Creating a Tourism/Trail Economy has taken time and there is still much work to be done. As we complete the Group of Seven Lake Superior Trail with connection to Neys Provincial Park, launch the full interpretive program through our app, and expand our programs to attract new and diverse visitors, our Northern Trail Town and local businesses will be able to capitalize on the increased visitation to Marathon and the Northshore. The Group of Seven Trail staff and Board of Directors look forward to seeing more visitors next year. If you are interested in learning more about how to count visitors without using trail counters, consider reading our 'Performance Measurement: How to Collect Data That Matters!' blog post. To learn more about trail town development, read our 'Trail Towns and the Trail Economy' blog post. |
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RESEARCH UPDATE
Summer 2023 Collaborative Research and Teaching Trip |
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Kelsey Johansen, PhD Chair, The Trail Research Hub |
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From May through July 2023, I participated in a Summer Collaborative Research and Teaching Trip to Germany focused on Hiking Tourism or 'Wandertourismus' and trail town destination development in Canada and German in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Applied Mangement's Adventure Campus (Treuchtlingen, Geramny), the University of the Westcoast's Department of Economics and the German Institute for Tourism Research (Heide, Germany), and the Munich University of Applied Sciences' Department of Tourism (Munich, Germany). |
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In early May, I first visited the University of Applied Management's Adventure Campus in Treutlingen, jsut south of Nuremberg. While there, I gave two guest talks on Nature Protection and Sustainable Rural Community Tourism Development to students studying sustainable resource management and Incorporating embodied practices of outdoor, experiential, and place-based learning into recreation programming design for students in their BA Outdoor Studies program. Many thanks to Dr. Manual Sand, the course coordinator, and my host, for helping to coordinate these campus visits. |
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Visit to, and guest talks at, the University of Applied Management's Adventure Campus in Treutlingen |
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I also had the opportunity to attend the 10th International Adventure Conference also hosted at the University of Applied Management's Adventure Campus in Treuchtlingen. At the conference, I presented a paper exploring Nature Journaling as a Way to Connect with Nature Through Immersive Embodied Experiences, Felt Memories, and Reflection, and ran a workshop on Nature Journaling. You can learn more about this research here and here. If you are interested in exploring how to integrate nature journaling into the program offerings along your trail, consider reading up about John Muir Law's a global innovator and leader in the nature journaling movement and author of the extremely popular Law's Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling. |
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Visit to the University of Applied Management's Adventure Campus in Treuchtlingen for the 10th International Adventure Conference |
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Also in May, I headed to Northern Germany, by train, to visit the University of the Westcoast's Department of Economics and the German Institute for Tourism Research in Heide. While there, I gave two guest talks. The first was on Having Fun with Empirical Research - Designing Studies for Impact and Collaborative Enjoyment and was delivered to students in the undergraduate research methods course. The second talk on Factors Influencing Local Business Buy-In and Support for Trail Tourism Development and Collaborative Destination Marketing was delivered to a specialist Masters of International Tourism Mangement course on Wandertourismus or Hiking Tourism. This course, taught by Dr. phil. Tim Harms, introduces students to the design, development and delivery of hiking tourism products and destinations through local case studies, site visits, and independent research. |
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Visit to, and guest talks at, the University of the Westcoast's Department of Economics and the German Institute for Tourism Research in Heide |
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In June, I returned to Bavaria to visit the Department of Tourism at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. Hosted by Prof. Dr. Markus Pillmayer, I delivered two lectures for his students. First a lecture to his undergraduate Destination Development Class on 'Trails Town Destination Development in Canada' which was also attended by several faculty members, followed by a lecture to his graduate-level Smart Destinations course on 'Smart Destinations: Using Augemented Reality to Create Unique Trail Tourism Experiences'. |
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Visit to, and guest talks at, the University of Applied Sciences in Munich |
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In July, I headed to Immenstadt im Allgäu, also in Bavaria, to the headoffices of Outdooractive, a Germany digital destination management company that has created the world's leading platform for outdoor tourism. Outdooractive has been the pioneer in outdoor tourism for over 25 years, and the Outdooractive platform provides users with information on outdoor routes, trails, points of interest, and other relevant data to help them plan and enjoy their outdoor adventures. Additionally, it serves as a networking platform for outdoor enthusiasts, allowing them to share experiences and recommendations. |
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Outdooractive Headquarters in Immenstadt im Allgäu |
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Outdooractive has 12,478,925 community members, who generate 342,687,775 pageviews per month, and supports the work of over 4,905 outdoor tourism and trail partners. With their app, trail users and tourists can access over 1 million premium routes, and content created by experts and professionals with specialized local knowledge, plan their routes for a wide range of activities, identify local points of interest and places to eat and stay, and enhance their safety with access to the best maps, trail networks, and current trail and weather conditions. |
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Sample Outdooractive In-App Map and Smart Watch Paired
Navigation Capabilities for Trail Users |
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However, perhaps more interesting for our readers, Outdooractive Business Solutions provides a way for the outdoor industry, trail associations, search and rescue, destinations, points of interest, hotels, and publishers to centrally publishes their visitor guidance and digital travel guide information. This ensures that uncontrolled user generated content is not published on the platform, and therefore minimizes SAR calls, as well as negative environmental impacts. You can learn more about their Trail Manager features here. |
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Sample Outdooractive Business User or Trail Manager Dashboard |
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The Outdooractive Trail Manager platform is a complete digital destination management solution, providing businesses with a centralized location for managing data, addressing guests, and reporting. As such, they also support destination management, including digitalization,visitor management, and sustainability and trail maintenance tracking, find out about their resources for trail destinations here. |
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You can also learn more about my Research trip, including my invited talks, conference presentation, and conference workshop, here. |
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RESEARCH UPDATE
Call for Academic Abstracts 'The Geographies and Mobilities of Hiking in the Post-Pandemic Anthropocene' |
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Kelsey Johansen, PhD Chair, The Trail Research Hub |
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If you are an academic, studying hiking, hiking-related tourism, the environmental impacts of hiking, etc., then please consider submitting an abstract to the Special Session that I am coordinating with Dr. Tim Harms, Prof. Dr. Markus Pillmayer, Prof. Dr. Marius Mayer and Christian Eilzer at the upcoming International Geographical Congress IGC2024 being held August 24th to 30th in Dublin. The session is sponsored by the IGU Commission on Tourism, Leisure and Global Change and presenters will have the opportunity to convert their presentations into either a reearch note, or (conceptual or applied) research paper for inclusion in a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. |
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The popularity of hiking, as proximity and nature-based recreation and tourism, boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trail infrastructure, including trail towns and gateway communities, are important applied recreation and tourism products and are driving many communities' post-pandemic tourism recovery as recreationist and tourist continue to engage in hiking. Despite this, hiking and hiking trails remain under-theorized within the academic literature. This session therefore calls for proposals linked to the geographies and mobilities of hiking in the post-pandemic Anthropocene, including how we understand and conceptualize the geographies of hiking, including hiking places, spaces, cultures, impacts, and economies.
While we will also consider any thematically relevant proposal for inclusion within the session, we are particularly interested in theoretical and empirical work, as well as case studies, that explore: |
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hiking culture in transition following the explosion in interest during the COVID-19 pandemic; changes in the hiking market post-COVID; economic, environmental and cultural impacts of hiking and hiking tourism; trail user safety and risk management planning; the development and spread of online hiking communities; destination management of long-distance trails; innovative approaches to developing and financing accessible and inclusive hiking trail infrastructure; inter- and intra-user group conflicts on shared use trails; and, the economic geography of hiking trails, trail towns, trail economies, and visitor spending.
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Abstracts may also examine: |
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human-nature connections and hiking, connecting to the more-than-human world through hiking; embodied hiking experiences; hiking experiences and destination development and marketing; innovative technology in trail tourism and recreation product development and marketing, including AR and VR experiences; technology enhanced wayfinding systems; and, using technology to document visitor behaviour and crowding and support risk management and visitor safety.
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All submissions need to be through the official conference abstract website, but feel free to contact me if you have any questions! When drafting your abstract, please keep in mind the following: |
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All papers must be written in English. The maximum length of a paper is 250 words. The maximum length of the title is 25 words; 5 keywords are required. If adding references, please use Harvard referencing. Presenters cannot submit more than one first authored oral presentation abstract. Please ensure that your findings are described to a level sufficient for reviewers to make an informed decision on quality. Papers that fail to meet these criteria will be rejected.
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The Mirror Pavilion by Irish Artist John Gerrard, at The Claddagh, Galway Ireland |
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The IGU Commission on Tourism, Leisure and Global Change will also be hosting a Pre-Congress Meeting August 22nd to 24th, 2024 in Galway, with the theme Just Transitions and Transformations in Tourism. The Pre-meeting will comprise a day of academic sessions held on the University of Galway campus in the heart of Galway city (Aug 22nd), a day of field visits centred on the rural Burren region in neighbouring county Clare (Aug 23rd) and finally, (Aug 24th) a morning of field visits in Galway city before travelling to Dublin for the afternoon opening of the IGC. You can learn more about the Pre-Congress Meeting here. |
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Cover of the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism |
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As mentioned above, presenters who engage in this Special Session will be invited to submit full manuscripts to be published in a Special Issue of the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism being coordinated by Dr. Kelsey Johansen, Dr. Tim Harms, Prof. Dr. Markus Pillmayer, Prof. Dr. Marius Mayer and Christian Eilzer. An open call for submission to the Special Issue will also be released for those academics unable to attend IGU2024 but who are still interested in publishing in the Special Issue on the Geographies and Mobilities of Hiking in the Post-Pandemic Anthropocene. |
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TRAIL RESEARCH HUB BLOG
Sharing Insights between Newsletters |
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Kelsey Johansen, PhD Chair, The Trail Research Hub |
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We publish our newsletter twice yearly, on November 1st, and May 1st, roughly marking the transition between the winter trail season and non-winter trail seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.
Between newsletters, we publish posts on our Blog at www.TrailResearchHub.com/news. Blog Posts span a range of topics range, and include two ongoing Blog Posts Series 'The Value of Research for Trails' and 'Article Breakdowns' as well as summaries of our in-progress research, education, and outreach work, and discussions of emerging issues relevant to trails professionals.
In our Blog Post Series on The Value of Research for Trails', we discuss how to leverage research to support evidence-based decision making in non-profit trail organizations, regional, provincial / territorial and federal trail advocacy groups, and government departments with trails mandates. In our 'Article Breakdown' Blog Series, we breakdown academic trail studies and dicuss how their findings can be applied to the development and delivery of trails in Canada. We are excited to be launching a new Blog Post Series shortly, and will be sharing more information on that soon. We also have an archive of our past Blog Posts where you can read our curated collection of thematic posts, as well as posts on trail towns, COVID-19 impacts on trails, trail planning, trail tourism development, community and industry engagement, and more... To help us have the widest impact, and generate the greatest benefit, we are also looking for your insights into topics of interest to members of the Canada trail community. If there is a Blog topic you would like us to cover, please click on the link below to submit your suggestion(s) or email us at info@trailresearchhub.com. |
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