Summary > Executive Summary

On Friday, October 24, 2003 the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad organized and hosted Destination Carcross at the Mt. McIntyre Recreation Centre in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Destination Carcross was borne out of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation on August 1st, 2003. The Memorandum defines their common goal to generate a more prosperous tourism and business community in the Carcross area. The purpose of Destination Carcross was to bring people together to develop:

118 people attended representing diverse perspectives from a variety of Yukon and Alaska communities. Representatives attended from the tourism industry, industry associations, Carcross & Southern Lakes communities, the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, as well as from multiple Governments.

The Summit provided a forum for those assembled to share their ideas about the development of Carcross as a tourism destination. The intent of requesting input from the numerous stakeholder groups who participated in the Summit was to draw upon local knowledge and expertise to provide input for the visioning and development of tourism opportunities throughout the area. Those who attended provided the organizers with a wealth of valuable input and feedback on the development.
This document represents the efforts of the Destination Carcross participants and their collective knowledge, skills and abilities that were put to work. Feedback generated at the Summit will serve to make Carcross not only a gateway to the Yukon but also, a tourism destination that considers respect for the environment, visitors and Yukon people and, sustainable economic, social, cultural and environmental growth as important considerations in the development process.

Continuing to build upon the successes of the day and the momentum that has been generated, feedback from stakeholder participants indicates a real desire to commit to action to make this exciting project a reality. To ensure this, action items have been identified in the Action Plan to move Carcross to the next stage in their development process.

Participants were divided into three working groups – Pennington, Bennett, & Chilkoot. This document represents a condensed summary of the discussions and recommendations that took place in these groups at the Destination Carcross summit.