09/05/2026
Good Saturday morning! I thought it was a great time to start a conversation. I have been answering questions on a thread with some concerns from local residents. Especially around motorized vs non- motorized trails.
These are fair questions and people deserve answers. So Thank you Bill Byrne for bringing them up. I hope we can have some real honest conversation.
Much of this information can also be found on our website, and are brought up in our newsletters, I hope we get more subscribers after this. 😉
These are fair questions, and they deserve clear answers.
Firstly lets talk about the elephant in the room.
Yes, public money is being invested in the Great Coastal Trail.
We have never hidden that fact, nor should we. We strive to be as transparent as possible.
The real question you should be asking is, whether investing public funds in a 1,000-kilometre destination trail across the Great Northern Peninsula represents good economic development.
To answer that, it helps to understand what we are actually building.
The Great Coastal Trail is not simply 1,000 kilometres of recreational walking trail.
It is regional tourism and economic infrastructure designed to connect communities, existing trails, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, cultural and historic assets, businesses and some of the most extraordinary coastline in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Its purpose is to bring people here, move them through our communities, encourage them to stay longer and create opportunities for local people to capture more of that visitor spending.
And there is considerable evidence from around the world including right here in Canada, showing that this model works.
Let's start with;
Llwybr Arfordir Cymru / Wales Coast Path - perhaps one of our closest international comparisons
The Wales Coast Path is particularly relevant to what we are developing on the Great Northern Peninsula.
Opened in 2012, it created a continuous walking route around the Welsh coastline and was developed through a partnership involving the Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales, local authorities and national parks.
Like the Great Coastal Trail, it was not viewed simply as recreational infrastructure. Economic development and strengthening the visitor economy were explicit objectives.
A Welsh Government report subsequently estimated that the Wales Coast Path was generating approximately £84 million a year in visitor spending and supporting more than 1,000 jobs.
Earlier economic analysis found that visitor spending associated with the path generated millions of pounds in Gross Value Added, with some of the strongest benefits flowing directly into accommodations, restaurants, cafés and other businesses serving visitors.
The Welsh Government continues to invest in maintaining, developing and marketing the route.
Why?
Because successful tourism infrastructure requires continued investment and because the economic return does not stop at the edge of the trail.
It flows into communities.
Great Allegheny Passage - United States
The Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile trail through former coal, coke, lumber and manufacturing communities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, now generates more than US$121 million in annual economic impact, supports nearly 1,400 jobs, and generates approximately US$19 million in tax revenue annually.
These are communities that know what it means to lose traditional industries and have to find new economic opportunities.
Virginia Creeper Trail- United States
The Virginia Creeper Trail is only 34 miles long, yet a Virginia Tech study estimated approximately US$61.1 million in annual regional economic impact, supporting about 582 full-time-equivalent jobs and generating approximately US$2.1 million in local tax revenue.
Perhaps the most important statistic is this:
61% of surveyed visitors said the trail was their sole reason for visiting the region.
Another 24% said it was a significant reason.
In other words, people did not simply happen to use the trail while they were there.
The trail brought them there.
West Highland Way — Scotland
The West Highland Way is a 96-mile long-distance walking trail through rural Scotland.
More than 45,000 people complete the entire route annually, with tens of thousands more walking portions of it. Approximately 200 small and medium-sized businesses operate along the route, and the trail contributes at least £12 million annually to the local economy.
That is the fundamental economics of long-distance walking.
Walkers need somewhere to sleep at night.
They need somewhere to eat.
Tomorrow they walk into another community and need those services again.
Otago Central Rail Trail - New Zealand
New Zealand's Otago Central Rail Trail generates an estimated NZ$25.9 million in annual visitor spending, supporting businesses throughout the rural communities along its corridor.
Research has also shown that trail visitors spend money on experiences beyond the trail itself, exactly the opportunity we see for museums, historic sites, cultural experiences, boat tours, restaurants, accommodations, crafts and other businesses throughout the Great Northern Peninsula.
Katy Trail - United States
The Katy Trail in Missouri provides another important lesson.
Research found that overnight trail visitors spent approximately US$148 per day, compared with about US$45 for day visitors..
That makes a huge difference in annual revenue
The Great Coastal Trail is being developed as a multi-day destination. People travelling for several days need accommodations, meals, groceries, transportation, guides, supplies and experiences as they move from community to community.
The objective isn't simply more visitors.
It is longer stays and greater visitor expenditure within our communities.
Bibbulmun Track Foundation - Australia
Perhaps one of the closest comparisons in scale is Western Australia's Bibbulmun Track - approximately 1,000 kilometres long.
Research has estimated approximately 167,000 walks annually and A$39 million in associated annual expenditure.
That is particularly relevant because the Great Coastal Trail is also approximately 1,000 kilometres and is being developed around a similar fundamental principle: use an extraordinary natural landscape to create a world-class long-distance experience while generating economic opportunities for communities along the route.
And we don't have to leave Canada to see the economics of trails.
The Trans Canada Trail commissioned a national economic study by Econsult Solutions examining trail-user expenditure across Canada.
The results are significant.
Trail users were estimated to spend approximately $13 billion annually on accommodations, food, services and local goods near the network.
That spending was estimated to generate approximately:
$23.1 BILLION in annual economic impact.
Approximately 221,500 jobs supported.
And approximately $7 billion in annual earnings.
Those aren't projections from Wales, Scotland, Australia or the United States.
Those are Canadian numbers
Quebec's Parc Linéaire le P'tit Train du Nord runs approximately 234 kilometres through communities in the Laurentians.
An economic-impact study based on 2022 activity estimated approximately $89.7 million in summer spending associated with the trail, producing approximately $60 million in economic benefits and supporting the equivalent of 815 jobs during the summer season alone.
Where was that money being spent?
Accommodation.
Restaurants.
Transportation and fuel.
Tourism attractions.
Equipment rental.
Souvenirs.
In other words, local businesses.
Confederation Trail - Prince Edward Island
Closer to home, Prince Edward Island transformed a former railway corridor into the Confederation Trail, a network now extending approximately 449 kilometres, including a 273-kilometre tip-to-tip route.
Tourism PEI actively markets cycling itineraries around the trail and directs visitors into accommodations, restaurants, attractions, shops and communities along the corridor.
That is an important point.
The economic value isn't created by the gravel beneath someone's feet or bicycle.
It is created by what happens around it.
These are different trails, different countries, different currencies and different economic-impact methodologies, so their numbers should not be directly compared.
But collectively, they demonstrate something very important for our region.
Destination trails can generate substantial and sustained economic activity in rural regions.
That brings us back to the question of public investment.
Governments routinely invest public funds in highways, airports, harbours, industrial parks, tourism attractions, national and provincial parks, cultural facilities and other infrastructure because those investments enable economic activity.
Trails are no different.
In 2023, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced a $7-million investment toward the Great Coastal Trail and trailhead development.
That is public money, and we are accountable for how public funding entrusted to this project is used.
But public funding is only part of the story.
The Great Coastal Trail is being built through a much broader partnership model that will include significant private-sector investment, corporate partnerships, community organizations, in-kind contributions, donated materials, volunteer labour and other non-government resources. It will employ hundreds of local residents.
Some investment will be measured in dollars.
Some will be measured in equipment, materials, expertise and professional services.
And some will come from people giving their time because they believe their communities have a future worth investing in.
That contribution has real economic value.
There is also an important distinction between "spending public money and investing public money."
Newfoundland and Labrador has invested heavily in tourism for decades - in parks, roads, airports, attractions, marketing, heritage infrastructure and destination development.
And visitors have returned billions of dollars to our economy through their spending.
They pay for hotels, restaurants, rental vehicles, gasoline, groceries, tours, attractions, crafts and experiences. Those businesses employ people, purchase goods and services, pay wages and generate tax revenue.
That money creates a circular economy by keeping money here in our region. Tourism is the largest circular economy on the planet.
The hotel buys from local suppliers where possible,
The restaurant employs local staff,
The outfitter purchases equipment, perhaps creating additional businesses
The employee buys groceries.
Businesses pay taxes.
Workers pay taxes.
Visitors pay sales taxes.
That is why governments invest in economic infrastructure in the first place.
Public investment helps create private economic activity, which generates employment, business revenue and public revenue that can be reinvested again.
There is nothing radical about that model. It is how economic development works.
And there is another point worth considering.
Canada's own national trail network is estimated to generate $23.1 billion in annual economic impact from trail-user spending.
Against numbers like that, the question should not simply be:
"Why are taxpayers investing in trails?"
A better question is:
"How much economic opportunity are rural communities leaving on the table if we don't?"
The Great Northern Peninsula presents an extraordinary opportunity.
Gros Morne already attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.
L'Anse aux Meadows is internationally recognized. Between them are dozens of communities, extraordinary landscapes, Indigenous, Norse, French and English history, existing trails and experiences that many visitors currently pass by or never discover.
And let's not forget that the Great Northern Peninsula holds the gateway to our Labrador family and to our Quebec
cousins. The Labrador Ferry moved 104 000 people in 2024
Southern Labrador Development Association - SLDA has seen tremendous uptake on their beautiful Labrador Pioneer Footpath. Jean-Claude Dumas and the work with Basse-cote nord
Our very own Great Northern Trail Association Inc. have seen unprecedented numbers of visitors to their trails in recent years.
The Great Coastal Trail is about connecting those assets and creating a reason to stay.
Another night.
Another meal.
Another community.
Another local business.
Another guide.
Another cultural experience.
Another reason for someone to start a business or remain in the community where they grew up.
Will a trail, by itself, solve every economic and demographic challenge facing rural Newfoundland and Labrador?
Of course not.
We have never claimed that it will.
But the evidence from Canada and around the world demonstrates that properly developed destination hiking/walking/cycling trails can become powerful economic infrastructure around which rural businesses and communities grow.
For decades, we have talked about the challenges facing rural Newfoundland and Labrador: declining populations, disappearing industries, young people leaving and businesses struggling to survive.
Doing nothing will not reverse any of those trends.
So we are choosing to build.
Not simply 1,000 kilometres of trail.
We are building a 1,000-kilometre economic corridor connecting communities along one of the most extraordinary coastlines in the world.
And as I say ad nauseam, ultimately, the measure of this project will not be how many kilometres of trail we build.
It will be how much opportunity those kilometres create.
Sincerely,
Erika Pardy
Proudly and Passionately
YOUR Executive Director
The Great Coastal Trail Authority
