Health, Wellness and Tourism: healthy tourists, healthy business ...

and reflect the internal life of community, not withstanding they are impacted and influenced
by external forces” (p. 107).
In his research, Reid (2007) is particularly interested in the social benefits of festivals in rural
settings. He reiterates the underlying elements of the social benefits listed by other authors,
explaining that they relate to social satisfaction, attitudes, beliefs, values, and lifestyle. He
divides the social benefits of special events in a rural setting into the following five
categories: networks and interactions, affective, learning and developing, socioeconomic, and
physical domain.
Other researchers wanted to better define the social benefits by developing various
measurement tools. These were mostly inspired by the tools used to measure the social
benefits of tourism, such as Lankford and Howard’s (1994a, 1994b) Tourism Impact Attitude
Scale. Among the instruments used to evaluate the social benefits of festivals (Delamere,
1997, 2001; Fredline, E., Jago, L. & Deery, M., 2003), we chose Delamere’s (2001) Festival
Social Impact Attitude Scale. This tool allows us to partially measure a festival’s influence on
the quality of life of the host community’s residents.
The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of a major event on residents’ quality of
life in an essentially rural area of the province of New Brunswick, on Canada’s east coast. To
our knowledge, the above-mentioned sources have not been used in a context as extensive as
the 2009 World Acadian Congress, which encompassed over 400 events taking place in 102
rural communities.
What is the World Acadian Congress?
The World Acadian Congress (WAC) is a large gathering of Acadians from all over the
world. Acadians are French descendents who arrived in America in 1604 to establish their
permanent residence there. In 1755 however, England decided to deport the Acadians who
refused to pledge allegiance to the British Crown. Thus, nearly 10,000 Acadians were
deported mostly to Louisiana, while others were returned to France. Others still hid in the
forest and were able to survive there for a few years with the help of the Natives. Throughout
the years, many returned to the territory currently known as l’Acadie.
Acadians were able to preserve their French language despite the fact that they are constantly
confronted with the reality of Canada’s strong English-speaking majority. There are
approximately 280,000 Acadians in the Atlantic Provinces, distributed as follows: 235,000 in
New Brunswick (33% of the population); 35,000 in Nova Scotia (4% of the population);
5,500 on Prince Edward Island (4% of the population); and 2,000 in Newfoundland and
Labrador (0.05% of the population). The Acadian diaspora also numbers approximately one
million descendants living elsewhere around the world, mostly in Quebec and Louisiana.
The WAC is held every five years. According to its organizers, “it is a unique opportunity for
people (from the host region) to showcase themselves for the entire world to see and to meet
their Acadian cousins from across the planet to celebrate their common history.”
(www.cma2009.ca)
The WAC program, which runs for 15 days, coincides with National Acadian Day on
August 15 th and revolves around four types of activities, including family reunions, public
celebrations, thematic and community events, and scientific and popular conferences. These
events must offer something of interest to all Acadians, young and old alike.