The Salute to the Sockeye Festival: Sustainable Rural Tourism at the Adams River, Tsútswecw Provincial Park, British Columbia

Sockeye salmon have been returning to the Adams River in British Columbia for thousands of years. They are an ecological and cultural keystone species and a significant contributor to the rural tourism economy. However, salmon populations are in decline throughout the Pacific Northwest, putting rural communities, economies, and entire ecosystems at risk. The Salute to the Sockeye [the Salute] is a nature-based tourism festival celebrating the return of wild salmon to the Adams River. In this paper, we used Actor Network Theory as a lens to identify actors associated with the Salute and examine the relationships among them. Guided by a community-based participatory research methodology, we conducted 31 semi -structured interviews with stakeholders involved in the Salute to assess how the tourism festival can impact sustainability at the Adams River. We found that the Salute is an example of a nature-based tourism festival that contributes to socio-economic and environmental sustainability at rural, local and regional levels. Through active incorporation of Indigenous and local knowledge, the Salute can contribute to the sustainability of a species, support healthy ecosystems, and be a driver for change through environmental advocacy and education. This was particularly the case when a strong bridging organization was at the core of the tourism event, and stakeholders worked collaboratively with local Indigenous communities.