By Dr. Chuck Chakrapani, Dr. Tony Lea and Dr. Ken Jones

Tourist and cottager towns are an intrinsic element of Canada's urban mosaic.  The types of businesses and services that locate and prosper in these towns are often part of their unique appeal.  Yet, the business structures of tourist and cottager towns are varied and complex.  The aim of this report is to attempt to disentangle the different character of business structures in tourist and cottager towns.  The report highlights the difficulties encountered in determining statistically-driven classifications of business activity by geography using a sample of towns across Canada, and forwards an alternative approach to traditional cluster and regression techniques, namely, correspondence analysis.  The reports tracks the analytical process providing the reader with insight into the statistical procedures used.  The findings underline the structural complexity of commercial activities, and serve to highlight the significant challenges faced when attempting to classify smaller towns with varied business structures and dynamic populations.