The Pandemic Riskscape in the Tourism Community of Canmore, Alberta during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 virus is a severe acute respiratory disease which began to spread across the world in 2019, resulting in a global pandemic. To control the spread of the disease, countries closed their borders and implemented widespread lockdowns. Now that lockdowns have come to an end and travel has resumed, the purpose of this study is to investigate the risk perceptions of residents living and working in the tourism community of Canmore, AB. This study adopts the concept of 'riskscapes' to explore how risk is experienced through spatial practices and embedded in specific places. The concept is used to examine how residents perceive risk as they navigate through the riskscape, or the landscape of risk, and investigates factors which influence risk perceptions across space.The concept is used to demonstrate how riskscapes consist of interwoven risks which change over time as they are shaped by various actors and power structures. Chapter 1: IntroductionCOVID-19 is an infectious disease which emerged in December 2019. By early 2023, there were 675 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 6.87 million deaths globally (World Health Organization, 2022). In March 2020, Canada put in place nonessential travel bans in an effort to slow the spread of the disease. During this time, there was a significant reduction in both domestic and international tourism. Months later, as COVID-19 cases stabilized, economies began to reopen. Though Canada did not reopen its borders for non-essential international travelers until the following year, domestic tourism began to resume during the summer of 2020. During this time, reports from around the world suggested that the limitations of international tourism during this time led to a boom in domestic tourism as individuals desired to travel again despite ongoing COVID-19 health protocols (Joo et al., 2021). As provinces across the country removed restrictions, eased safety regulations, and welcomed back tourism, there was a unique opportunity for research to analyze the perception of risk for those returning to work in this resurging tourism setting.People returning to client-facing jobs in the tourism sector (i.e., food and beverage service, retail, hospitality/hotels, etc.) during a pandemic are likely to perceive risk differently, whether at work or while moving through their busy communities.Tourism destinations themselves have unique characteristics that make them important settings to study risk perception during this pandemic. For one, most tourist towns have a small permanent population and a high number of visitors, especially during high seasons. This means residents experience high turnover of numerous people from around the country, potentially increasing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Second, there are