Aims of the Project
- Identify examples of 'best practice' and organise study tours to be able to learn from other regions and evaluate potential for future development.
- Implement events & activities based upon the culture of the region.
- Establish links with project partners to share knowledge & experience of process
- Analyse the structures required to enable the further development of sustainable tourism based on cultural heritage.
In fulfilling these aims National Park project staff, supported by local community, business and specialist contacts, compiled a representative cultural tourism ‘target group’, or stakeholder, contact list. Within the geographical target area of the Cheviot Hills and upper Coquetdale landowners, farmers, local businesses (based around the market towns of Rothbury and Wooler), heritage and tourism managers, community groups, conservationists and recreational users were invited to get involved.
Individual group discussions or seminars were organised, and provided an opportunity (a) to consider and promote the potential for sustainable tourism based on cultural heritage, and (b) to highlight and discuss any issues or possible conflicts that might arise. Critically, representatives of all individual groups were then brought together and given an opportunity to share ideas and concerns. This ‘all groups seminar’ was hosted by an independent facilitator, and generated a range of very positive proposals for sustainable tourism based on cultural heritage.
Study visits then took place to stimulate ideas for sustainable tourism products, to consider the effective integration of sustainable tourism with traditional land management, to share ideas with interregional project participants, and to inform a local equestrian tourism initiative. Coquetdale’s John Barleycorn Festival and the British Horse Society’s Cheviot Challenge Riding Routes are two initiatives that have been stimulated or informed by ASPECT project activity.
Regular activity updates were provided through an ASPECT Project Newsletter, and ongoing engagement and product development has now been embedded in the work of the National Park Authority’s Community Enterprise and Sustainable Tourism staff.
