NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: mining, social sciences, community development, diamond mining, tourism

Objective(s): The objectives of this study are to: examine conditions of the resource development leading to diamond tourism and existing conditions in the development of diamond tourism; identify the opportunities and constraints of diamond tourism in Yellowknife; describe the outcomes in the social economy that result from the development of diamond tourism.

Project Description: The objectives of this study are to: examine conditions of the resource development leading to diamond tourism and existing conditions in the development of diamond tourism; identify the opportunities and constraints of diamond tourism in Yellowknife; describe the outcomes in the social economy that result from the development of diamond tourism. The researcher will initially be contacting between 15 – 20 influential stakeholders involved with diamond mining and diamond tourism. Each stakeholder will be asked to participate in a focus group with a chance of having a follow up interview later on. Focus groups will last between 1 – 2 hours and interviews will last between 30 – 60 minutes. All focus groups and interviews will be tape recorded and transcribed. The focus group will aim to gain perceptions of diamond tourism, background information on the individual, and his/her involvement in diamond tourism. To begin the researcher will ask each stakeholder to describe his/her past experience in the tourism or mining industry and how he/she sees the development of diamond tourism. The researcher will then use the nominal group technique to develop ideas for discussion. The nominal group technique will entail participants to write down the top three constraints and top three opportunities that they feel diamond tourism will have to face. This will allow the researchers to develop specific topics to discuss within opportunities and constraints. Then the focus groups will be separated into two topics of discussion. The first topic will be on the constraints of diamond tourism in Yellowknife and the second topic will be the opportunities of diamond tourism in Yellowknife. Following the focus groups the researcher will examine the transcripts to identify gaps in the information. She will then use interviews with individual focus group members to help fill in these gaps. The interviews will be based on the content of the focus groups and the sole purpose is to gain information that may have been left out during the focus group. Specific questions will be based on the constraints and opportunities of diamond tourism, perceptions of diamond tourism, background information on the individual, and their involvement in diamond tourism. The type of information missing from the focus group will determine the types of questions asked. Once the data has reached saturation (meaning the same information is being discussed) the researcher will enter into a phase of analyzing the data. A final report will then be written on the findings of this data which will be presented to the community in form of a presentation. The researcher will provide a final report of findings to her community partners, and she will present the work to community members at a public presentation in spring 2008. She will give a copy of her final report to her community partners and to the Yellowknife library. A copy of her thesis will be held at the Lakehead University Library and this can be accessed internationally. Opportunities for local involvement in this study are available through partnership. Partnership will entail a process of consultation throughout the research study; the researcher’s community partners suggestions and opinions will be considered at all times. However, the partners will not have access to raw data from focus groups or interviews; they will only have access to the report of findings and the final thesis report. Fieldwork will be conducted from June 15 to July 31, 2007 in Yellowknife, NT.