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ABSTRACT
In 1885, with the support of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) which had reached the
site two years earlier, the Canadian government declared the 10 square miles around the Banff
hot springs in Banff, Alberta as reserved land. The townsite of Banff was demarcated in 1886,
and two years later the CPR opened the Banff Springs Hotel, its first hotel in the Canadian
Rocky Mountains. Tourism for the wealthy and elite were seen as the primary means for
funding the construction of a transcontinental railway which was vital for the expansion of the
nation into the west. In the 1930s, an east-west highway paralleled the CPR rail line, and the
park expanded to its present size of 2,650 square miles. In 1984 the United Nations declared
Banff National Park (together with neighbouring Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho National Parks) a
World Heritage Site.
Today, Banff is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Canada, renowned for its
beauty, hot springs, hiking, camping and skiing. The town itself is now a self-governed
municipality with legislated boundaries within the park, and a population of 7,600 permanent
residents. With a fairly mild climate, abundant vegetation and great wildlife diversity, the area
is both ecologically priceless and attractive to humans. Although development is restricted to
approximately 1% of the park, its effects resound throughout the entire ecosystem. It has been
argued that the emphasis on the economic potential of the scenery for tourism has entrenched
an organization and philosophy of ‘parks for profit.’ This philosophy has resulted in increasing
threats to the environment.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of tourism as an economic development
strategy in Banff National Park. The evaluation of the strategy will address the National Park
Convention