The revitalization of a heritage travel route: Canada’s Cabot Trail

Abstract

ABSTRACTScenic travel routes have been developed to provide opportunities for tourism and recreation and to promote economic development especially in rural areas. However, maintaining an iconic attraction requires a collaborative destination management effort to keep it viable. The Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia, Canada is used in this paper as a case study for a scenic heritage route revitalization process. The Tourism Area Life Cycle model stages are used to illustrate the tourism development and decline on the Cabot Trail. This paper is a detailed documentation and analysis of the impact of a not-for-profit volunteer organization’s efforts to revitalize the Cabot Trail, through collaboration with local businesses, community groups and various levels of government and funding agencies. It draws upon the drive tourism, heritage trails and tourism revitalization literature. It fills a gap in the knowledge on heritage trails by illustrating a revitalization process that could be repeated in other areas experiencing similar issues.