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Grants

Year Investigators Research project Funder/Sponsor Amount
2022-23

Graci, S., Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada

Skills Based Training for Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Tourism in Canada’s North

Future Skills Center

$300,000

2023

Graci, S.

The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to Recovering From The Effects of COVID 19: Developing a Post Pandemic Sustainable Tourism Strategy for Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs in Northern Canada

Business Strategy Internship

$15,000

2023

Griffin, T.

Whitehorse residents’ experiences of hosting friends and relatives

Partnership Engage Grant

$24,180

2022

Graci, S.

Corporate Partnerships Program Development at Planeterra

Business Strategy Internship

$15,000

2022

Graci, S.

Programming Efficiencies into Integrated Communications at Bannikin Travel and Tourism

Business Strategy Internship

$15,000

2022

Graci, S.

Tundra North Tours Sustainability Planning

Business Strategy Internship

$15,000

Past Grants

OVPRI Toronto Metropolitan University grant worth $10,060 with Dr. Sonya Graci.

SSHRC Insight Grant, worth $57,658. With Norman Shaw (PI), Dr. Sari Graben and Dr. Sonya Graci.

About the Project

Would you pay 20% to cash a cheque?  Unfortunately, many low-income Indigenous people are paying high fees when they convert a paper cheque to cash.

Approximately 15% of Indigenous people do not have a bank account.  There may no bank on or near the reserve, they may have had a bad experience or they do not have the necessary id.  Some of their income, including government benefits, are paid by cheque, creating the problem of how to turn this cheque into cash.  They may have to pay transport costs to travel to the nearest bank and if they use a non-bank cheque cashing service, such as the store on the reserve,  they may be charged up to 20% of the face value of the cheque. Even those with bank accounts are charged up to $5 to withdraw cash from an ATM, assuming they are lucky enough to have a functioning ATM near their home.  Are there alternatives?  

The Government of Ontario has started to distribute pre-paid debit cards, which are pre-loaded each month and can be used to pay for merchandise in a similar manner to a credit card.  

Some countries, notably Kenya, are major users of mobile money, where the mobile network operator manages an account of digital money.  The phone can be used to send money to others and to pay for merchandise. For most purposes, there is no need for cash. When there is a need, withdrawals are via agents for a fee of about 1%.

The objective of this research is to find ways that low-income Indigenous people can keep more of their money.  We have started the first stage where we are speaking to Indigenous communities to understand the challenges. The second stage will be to propose solutions that save unnecessary fees.

 

TRSM Research Development Grant worth $7,000 with Dr. Hyunghwa (Rick) Oh.

Ryerson TRSM Seed grant worth $7,000 with Dr. Rachel Dodds.

Environmental Science Graduate Department grand worth $1,600 with Dr. Rachel Dodds. 

TRSM Seed Grant worth $7,000 with Dr. Sonya Graci.

SSHRC Explore grant worth $6,986 with Dr. Sonya Graci.

Environmental Applied Science and Management grant worth $3,430 with Dr. Sonya Graci.

Ted Rogers School of Management Internal Research Grant, worth $7,000.00. Project to run from May 2018 to April 2019.

Project Overview:

Improving conditions for environmentally sustainable recreation activities is a stated objective of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. Policies 7.15 SA and 7.16 SA of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan identify government and recreation businesses owners as having responsibility for promoting programs and adopting environmentally sustainable recreation best practice.

Festivals of all kinds are important to the Ontario economy in the fact that they attract visitors from across Canada, the United States and internationally. Economically these events bring thousands of visitors who contribute to the local economy and community.

Socially and environmentally, however, these events and festivals can be a burden on local communities if they are not managed with a sustainability mindset. Events and festivals around the world create enormous amounts of waste and other negative impacts.

Project Objective:

Through a previous project (LS-14-15-009) funded by the Province, the Recipient created the Guide, which outlines how festivals and individuals who attend them can be more conscious of resource consumption and aware of opportunities to reduce unnecessary waste. The previous project involved working with environmental festival organizers, vendors and participants within the Lake Simcoe watershed to share knowledge of and support implementation of best practices, which were listed in the Guide (http://greenfestivals.ca). At the conclusion of the previous project, the Guide was given to Festival and Events Ontario, a provincial organization that disseminates the Guide through their website.

This project will determine how the Guide and knowledge gained from implementing the best practices it sets out can be leveraged to mobilize festival and event organizers to implement sustainability practices industry-wide, and/or to adopt a global standard for festival sustainability that can be implemented across the province or country.

Project Overview:

Improving conditions for environmentally sustainable recreation activities is a stated objective of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. Policies 7.15 SA and 7.16 SA of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan identify government and recreation businesses owners as having responsibility for promoting programs and adopting environmentally sustainable recreation best practice.

Festivals of all kinds are important to the Ontario economy in the fact that they attract visitors from across Canada, the United States and internationally. Economically these events bring thousands of visitors who contribute to the local economy and community.

Socially and environmentally, however, these events and festivals can be a burden on local communities if they are not managed with a sustainability mindset. Events and festivals around the world create enormous amounts of waste and other negative impacts.

Project Objective:

The objective of the Project was to encourage festival organizers to adopt best management practices to adaptively manage environmental impacts as well as educate vendors and participants about how they can contribute to environmental sustainability.

Rachel Dodds, Professor was awarded a grant from the Province of Ontario to undertake the following:

– Develop a guide to disseminate to festival organizers and tourism organizations in the Lake Simcoe watershed as well as more broadly across Ontario. This guide is online (http://greenfestivals.ca).

– Facilitate no less than two pilot projects to field test the guide, in collaboration with the festival organizer, within the Lake Simcoe watershed.

– Support the pilot projects by working with participating festival organizers to develop a strategy, best practice examples and technical support.

– Promote participation in Project and engaging festival visitors, vendors and organizers in conversation about reducing their environmental footprint.

Resource: http://greenfestivals.ca/

Purpose:

The Accelerating Digital Technology Adoption in Canadian Companies project aimed to better understand obstacles to IT adoption and innovation in Canadian organizations and to develop actionable recommendations on how to mitigate them. The project focused on accelerating ICT adoption and innovation in Canadian organizations in the Manufacturing, Retail, HealthCare, and Transportation sectors, with a particular focus on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

Project Overview:

For generation’s water and trail related recreation activities have been strong social and economic factors in addition to connecting people to the ecosystems of the Lake Simcoe watershed. Size, location and linkages, like the Trent Severn Waterway, make the Lake Simcoe watershed is a popular recreation and tourism destination for Ontario residents and out of province visitors. The Lake Simcoe watershed is within a one hour’s drive of half the population of Ontario. As the population in Ontario continues to grow; demand for recreational resources in Lake Simcoe watershed are likely to increase. Improving conditions for environmentally sustainable recreation activities is a stated objective of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. Policies 7.15 SA and 7.16 SA of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan identify government and recreation businesses owners as having responsibility for promoting programs and adopting environmentally sustainable recreation best practice.

Project objective:

The objective of this project was to quantify the type of visitation to the Lake Simcoe watershed and the associated spending patterns and tendencies of visitors to search for businesses offering programing or products that contribute towards sustainable changes in the market.

Rachel Dodds, Associate Professor was awarded a grant from the Province of Ontario in November 2014 to undertake the following:

  • Review of the literature on fresh water lake based tourism including outdoor recreation
  • Develop a survey instrument to collect data about visitors to the Watershed for the purpose of supporting analysis of visitation triggers, spending tendencies and interest in sustainable products in the tourism market
  • Collect 500 surveys
  • Prepare a comprehensive report that summarized findings, outined a contextual understanding of visitor responses to questions in the survey Instrument regarding triggers for visiting the Watershed and visitor spending tendancies and visitor effort to search for sustainable programs or products within the Lake Simcoe watershed.

Research Purpose:

The purpose of the Project was to undertake research to understand recreational visitation to the Lake Simcoe watershed and the associated spending patterns and tendencies of visitors to search for businesses offering programing or products that contribute towards sustainable changes in the market.

Project Background:

For generations, water and trail related recreation activities have been strong social and economic factors in connecting people to the ecosystems of the Lake Simcoe watershed. Size, location and linkages, like the Trent Severn Waterway, make the Lake Simcoe watershed a popular recreation and tourism destination for Ontario residents and out of province visitors. The Lake Simcoe watershed is within an hour’s drive of half the population of Ontario. As the population in Ontario continues to grow, demand for recreational resources in the Lake Simcoe watershed are likely to increase. Through an adaptive management framework, the Province and other stakeholders are taking action to protect the natural environment within the Lake Simcoe watershed. Improving conditions for environmentally sustainable recreation activities is a stated objective of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. Policies 7.15 SA and 7.16 SA, of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan identify government and recreation businesses owners as having responsibility for promoting programs and adopting environmentally sustainable recreation best practice. Although many positive factors such as income, employment and overall economic development can be gained from recreation and tourism, many destinations have experienced significant resource degradation. There is no longer debate about the need to move towards more environmentally sustainable recreation and tourism in destinations. The Lake Simcoe Protection Plan defines “environmentally sustainable recreation” as meaning an environmentally and socially responsible form of recreation which focuses on the intrinsic attractions of the natural and cultural environment and minimizes the impacts on ecosystems and the human community, while providing economic benefits for all on a sustained rather than short term basis.

Project purpose and outcome:

This Project assessed visitor interest in environmentally sustainable outdoor recreation and tourism programs and products using a research method developed for the Lake Simcoe watershed.

Canada has long been undergoing demographic shifts as waves of immigrants arrive looking for a fresh start and improved quality of life. A disproportionately high number of new Canadians enter the tourism and hospitality industries as a source of employment. These sectors offer relatively low skilled jobs, an opportunity to improve language skills, and to gain local work experience that can help lead to other career paths. Another factor is the entrepreneurial characteristic often associated with migrants, and the opportunities that hospitality and tourism offer for those wishing to start a new business. The hospitality sector and the migrant workforce therefore have strong interconnections for a variety of reasons, and there is a growing and substantial body of knowledge on the experiences of those who perform low skilled roles, and the needs of business seeking this type of labour. Less is known, however, about immigrants who find themselves in longer term hospitality careers at management level positions. A recent internal report at Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management found that the proportions of non-Canadian students are significantly higher in hospitality and tourism management compared with other Bachelor of Commerce programs (22% compared with 8-14%). Furthermore, non-Canadian students were more likely to struggle in the first two years of the program, but ultimately outperform their Canadian peers in the final two years, suggesting that the most successful graduates academically are often immigrants. Little is known about the experiences and motivations of these students, and this study aims to fill this knowledge gap. There are implications for program development and extra-curricular support, advice and insight for industry on how to engage and retain these high performing students, as well as opportunities for advancing theoretical conceptualization for future and larger studies.

Purpose:

The purpose of this research aims to mobilize and share knowledge about community-based tourism.

The aim of this project is to determine key criteria for long-term sustainable (economic, environmental and social) success that can be applied globally so as to increase the market share of community-based tourism. The project proposes to complete initial fieldwork to prepare for a larger SSHRC partnership grant.

Purpose:

The purpose of this research seeks to survey residents of Toronto about their hosting behaviors and attitudes to help explain and inspire efforts to engage residents, including newcomers, as tourism attractions and influencers of visitor behavior. Funding has been received from the Ted Rogers School of Management ($7,000), the RBC Immigrant, Diversity and Inclusion Fund ($10,000), as well as funding from Tourism Toronto and the City of Toronto (Economic Development and Culture).

Purpose:

This multi-stage mixed-methods research draws case studies from Winnipeg, Toronto, and Edmonton, using interviews, surveys, and focus groups to provide insight into acceptance and use, as well as non-acceptance and non-use, of mobile technology in festival settings.

Guided by the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Use of Technology the six research questions are:

1) How do festival attendees currently use mobile devices at festivals and in what ways don’t festival attendees use mobile devices?

2) Why do festival attendees use/not use mobile devices at festivals?

3) What aspects of festival context impact festival patrons’ mobile device use/non-use?

4) Which UTAUT factors predict patrons’ mobile device acceptance/non-acceptance at a festival?

5) How is mobile device use/non-use at a festival related to the visitor experience? and,

6) What outcomes do attendees experience from using/not using mobile technology?