ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the changing socio-cultural landscape of three small towns in rural northern Idaho, each engaged in deliberately re-envisioning their future. Faced with the closure of local timber mills, each town is identifying its unique cultural relationship to resource-based tourism. Consumptive wildlife tourism has become a major theme in re-envisioning their economic future. Transitioning from a timber extraction economy to a consumptive wildlife tourism economy takes more than vision; it takes collective action on the part of community residents to progress towards realizing that vision. Key factors in building the capacity for community-driven tourism development strategies are examined through a case study approach that illuminates the cultural barriers and opportunities that impede or promote a community in transition.