It's a natural business plan, with a definite bottom line. Getting naked is proving an attractive way for some Canadian entrepreneurs to do business. But it's not all about nude beaches and suntanned volleyball games.

Tanya Listwin is a veteran travel agent based in Vancouver and a naturist. She recently embarked on a new endeavour with Clothing Optional Vacations, a travel agency aimed primarily at Canadian naturists.

"There are lots of people who are really excited about my company because we do cater specifically to naturists and nudists and offer a variety of vacations and packages that they can feel confident in booking," she says.

Clothing Optional Vacations arranges cruise, resort and group trips for families, singles and couples. Listwin's website also includes listings for a few "lifestyle" resorts, the current euphemism for swinging couples.

Karen Dyer, Business Edge

Tanya Listwin, a naturist travel agent and founder of Clothing Optional Vacations, enjoys Vancouver's spring sunshine.

Naturist travel is not restricted to the West Coast and its world-famous Wreck Beach, however.

Keith Scott, a private travel agent with Ingrid's Travel (Yours Naturally) based in Pickering, says that 90 per cent of his business is booking naturist tours, resorts and cruises. Only about one per cent of his clientele opt for a Canadian destination, however, with most heading south to sunnier climes to work on their all-over tans.

There's a reason these resorts can't exist in Canada, he adds. "A viable resort has to cater to guests 365 days a year and our weather doesn't allow for that. You can't put a very expensive four-star hotel into that environment."

Naturist groups (occasionally known as nudists, but not to be confused with naturalists) have a firm foundation in Canada, first emerging as sun-tanning collectives in the 1930s. Naturism began as a 19th-century movement in response to the growing industrialization of western societies. By the early 1900s, nudist clubs were opening in Germany, France and England as people eschewed the constrictions of Victorian formality and embraced what they felt was a more natural lifestyle.

Canada's oldest naturist club is the Van Tan club, established in 1939 and still operating on the slopes of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver.

The International Naturist Federation (INF) defines naturism as "a way of life in harmony with nature, characterized by the practice of communal nudity, with the intention of encouraging respect for oneself, respect for others and for the environment."

There is a strong emphasis placed on family participation and the belief that children can grow up with a healthy body image in a naturist environment without fear or shame.

Naturism is a growing trend, says Paul Rapoport, publications director for the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN), which represents the interests of Canadian naturist/nudist individuals, families, clubs, resorts and organizations.

Rapoport, a long-time naturist and a professor of music at McMaster University since 1977, attributes some of the rise in interest in naturist travel to aging boomers with more disposable income.

A 1999 survey commissioned by the organization showed 8.9 per cent of Canadians said they have been to, or would go to, a nude beach or resort and a further 11.6 per cent would skinny-dip in mixed company.

Rapoport adds increased attention given to the human body in today's media may also be spurring interest. "Also, there have been many more stories in the media that don't laugh at naturists," he says. "What is happening is that naturist concepts of the body are seeping into the mainstream."

In addition to membership in the FCN, many Canadian groups are also members of the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR), which claims a membership of more than 50,000 and acts as an umbrella group for about 270 clubs.

Naturist and filmmaker Malcolm Scott (no relation to Keith), perhaps best known for his 2003 naked tour across Canada in a motorhome, is a year-round Ontario resident who even shovels snow in the nude.

"Whenever anyone asks me why I don't wear clothing, I ask them why they do," says Scott, who lives at the Glen Echo Family Nudist Park in King Township north of Toronto. "The body was made to go uncovered. We should only wear clothes when we have to."

Scott says that his feet were very cold the first few times he shovelled snow in the nude, but since then his body has acclimatized.

Scott is also involved in the travel industry and is currently promoting a new DVD, Nudist Resorts of Canada: The Uncovered Country. The DVD profiles naturist resorts from Vancouver Island to the Maritimes (excepting Quebec, which will be in a second DVD set for fall release).

Scott recently reopened his online business, The Nudist Store (www.thenudiststore.com), after closing his actual shop in nearby Concord due to illness. Now back in the pink, Scott plans to stock items including T-shirts ("Nudists are Totally Cool"), sunscreen, pocket towels for storing clothing on a nude beach and a wide variety of literature and videos on the naturist experience.

While many naturist clubs are buffing up their numbers, for some it is a matter of degree.

According to the Van Tan website, new members (known as "New-dists") are always welcome. Members are also welcome to the Prairie region clubs, but not all club members are as willing as the FCN directors to be forthcoming about their identities.

Richard (who declined to give his last name), a member of the Sunny Chinooks Association north of Calgary, says that while the club's membership has grown by four members in the past year, there is still a stigma surrounding naturism. "People do not look (favourably) at us when they find out what we do for recreation," he says.

And while Prairie region FCN director (and former board member of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society) Elizabeth Wesley welcomes new members, she says she is disappointed with many clubs' policy against single members. "Any organization needs new members to grow," she notes.

Wesley has had her own share of business-related problems because of her lifestyle choices. After trying to start up a bed-and-breakfast business in a small Alberta town, neighbours put together a petition to ask her to leave.

"I was basically run out of town," she says, adding that the financial losses she has suffered have meant she hasn't been able to re-establish a B&B in her new home near Edmonton. Still, she's unwilling to give the name of the town where she had her bad experience. "There's good people that live there," she says, adding not everyone was behind the push to get her to take her business elsewhere.

Naturist travellers also tend to distance themselves from singles clubs such as hedonist resorts. "(Hedonism clubs) are not naturist resorts, and naturists avoid places like that," says travel agent Keith Scott.

"Those places are nothing but sex parties and that is not what naturism is all about. I'm 65 years old and have been involved with the naturist movement for 50 years and I've yet to see an erection in any of the places I've been."

(Karen Dyer can be reached, fully clothed, at karen@businessedge.ca)