CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 1 29^th March 2019

Deliv­ery of Cairngorms Tour­ism Action Plan

This report sum­mar­ises deliv­ery to the end of Feb­ru­ary 2019 and makes an assess­ment of cur­rent pro­gress towards deliv­ery of the actions set out in the Tour­ism Action Plan using Green/​Amber/​Red. All plans for ²⁰¹⁹⁄₂₀ are sub­ject to con­firm­a­tion by part­ners at the next meet­ing of the Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship (mid-May).

Theme 1 — Lead­er­ship	Lead	Deliv­ery to date	Planned Activ­ity 2019⁄20	Status
Action 1 Secure and build on the pro­gress made by the Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship (CTP) to ensure effect­ive deliv­ery and account­ab­il­ity of the Tour­ism Action Plan	CTP Chair	2 meet­ings of CTP / year Suc­cess­ful re-accred­it­a­tion of Park with European Charter Annu­al report­ing arrange­ments in place to CNPA Board | New CTP Chair to be appoin­ted Review of mem­ber­ship 2 CTP meet­ings * Annu­al report to CNPA Board in March 2019
Action 2 Ensure the Action Plan is industry-led and has mean­ing­ful buy-in from busi­nesses, com­munit­ies and the pub­lic sector	CTP Mem­bers	CBP Tour­ism Group has been estab­lished to help feed into CTP CBP Sum­mer Con­fer­ence at Mar Lodge focus­ing on Snow Roads Scen­ic Route CBP Autumn Con­fer­ence in Aviemore allowed import­ant updates on: CairnGorm Moun­tain, Year of Young People and SnowRoads. Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire Des­tin­a­tion Strategy launched March at Con­fer­ence with spe­cif­ic themed work­shops in sub­sequent weeks. Strong col­lab­or­at­ive response by all part­ners through Funicu­lar Response Group (includ­ing mar­ket­ing and busi­ness advice ses­sions) | Vote on pro­pos­als for Tour­ism Busi­ness Improve­ment Dis­trict in Moray CBP Sum­mer con­fer­ence and Annu­al Con­fer­ence in Novem­ber Deliv­ery of 80k Growth Fund mar­ket­ing ini­ti­at­ive * Wide pro­gramme of busi­ness engage­ment events by CBP

Theme 2 — Skills	Lead	Deliv­ery	Planned Activ­ity 2019⁄20	Status
Action 3 Secure part­ner­ships with fur­ther and high­er edu­ca­tion organ­isa­tions to devel­op edu­ca­tion ini­ti­at­ives which sup­port the growth of tour­ism and the hos­pit­al­ity sec­tor as a career path.	CTP	Com­munity plan­ning sub-groups set up Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil adop­ted new Skills Strategy. CBP Con­fer­ence Nov 18 with the theme — Inspir­ing Young People to Build a Future in the Nation­al Park Rur­al Skills and Women in Wel­lies events	Re-engage­ment with Skills Devel­op­ment Scot­land and UHI around spe­cif­ic Tour­ism related oppor­tun­it­ies Plans with Devel­op­ing Young Workforce
Action 4 Deliv­er busi­ness sup­port and staff train­ing pro­grammes to enable con­tin­ued devel­op­ment of our tour­ism busi­nesses with a par­tic­u­lar focus on digit­al capability	Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership	14 Digit­al Train­ing courses (130 par­ti­cipants delivered) 38 Busi­ness sup­port events with 1160 par­ti­cipants delivered CBP Emer­ging Lead­er Pro­gramme with HIE | Digit­al tour­ism train­ing events led by CBP Busi­ness sup­port events and Emer­ging Lead­er pro­gramme Fur­ther MIY pro­ject roll-out

Theme 3 – Enhance our Assets	Lead	Deliv­ery	Planned Activ­ity 2019⁄20	Status
Action 5 Pilot a ​‘Total Qual­ity Des­tin­a­tion Approach’ to vis­it­or infra­struc­ture and enhan­cing the vis­it­or exper­i­ence and identi­fy oppor­tun­it­ies for invest­ment and devel­op­ment of key assets into out­stand­ing vis­it­or experiences	Vis­itScot­land	No pro­gress to date. VS have kept CTP informed about stalled plans due to changed arrange­ments with con­tract­ors and aca­dem­ic insti­tu­tions. Edin­burgh Uni. and oth­er data gather­ers now involved. Two bids have been approved in prin­ciple for Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund in Glen­more (path) and Muir of Din­net (car-park and toi­lets) Two more bids have been pre­pared for Brae­mar (park­ing) and Cairngorm Moun­tain (car­park and 24 hour toi­lets) | The pilot­ing of a ​‘Total Qual­ity Des­tin­a­tion Approach’ for the Park has stalled and is on hold indef­in­itely * Deliv­ery of two Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund pro­jects – and two more if fund­ing is approved by VisitScotland
Action 6 Devel­op­ing and enhan­cing key stra­tegic assets and work­ing to turn these assets into out­stand­ing vis­it­or exper­i­ences with a focus on:	Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership	Par­ti­cip­a­tion in Stake­hold­er Event for ERDF Nat­ur­al & Cul­tur­al sup­port MIY pro­gramme for out­door activ­ity pro­viders (piloted 5 Apr 18)	* Application(s) sub­mit­ted for SNH Nature/​Cul­ture
Roads: SnowRoads Scen­ic Route	CNPA &	SnowRoads Brand, Web­site and Mobile App launched with loc­al aware­ness-rais­ing events Road signs installed Aber­deen City and Shire Tour­ism Award for innov­a­tion awar­ded in Dec 2018 with the pro­ject going for­ward to Nation­al Awards in March 2019.	Her­it­age pro­gramme in High­lands & Moray. Integ­ra­tion of route man­age­ment with­in CBP Fund­ing secured from Vis­itScot­land Growth Fund and oth­ers to pro­mote route Com­ple­tion of Road signs
A9		Badenoch Great Place Pro­ject estab­lished. Inter­pret­a­tion & Mar­ket­ing Strategy under­way and cur­rently under­tak­ing an audit of all cul­tur­al and her­it­age assets in the area. Inter­pret­ive themes will be developed in order to pro­duce a new Mar­ket­ing Plan for use by the area.	Scop­ing of an Altern­at­ive Tour­ist Route for Badenoch Next set of activ­it­ies to be developed include a web­site design, famil­i­ar­isa­tion vis­its for the busi­ness sec­tor, loc­al stor­ies research pro­ject and devel­op­ment of an A9 mobile app. * Trans­port Scot­land to take for­ward Stage I design options study
Paths: Spey­side Way	CNPA	CNPA lead­ing on Spey­side Way Exten­sion inc. plan­ning, con­struc­tion and inform­a­tion. CNPA & SNH have fun­ded an 18 month access post to improve the exist­ing route.	Inshriach Forest sec­tion com­pleted Tromie Bridge to Ruthven Bar­racks con­struc­tion com­plete by Decem­ber 2019. Spey­side Way Inter­pret­a­tion Strategy developed 2018⁄19. Upgrade of the exist­ing sec­tion between Aviemore and Boat of Garten
Deeside Way		Plan­ning per­mis­sion gran­ted for a path link­ing Brae­mar with Inver­cauld bridge | Invest­ig­a­tion of fund­ing poten­tial — con­sidered challenging.
Cairngorm & Glenmore		Strategy agreed but delays in devel­op­ing effect­ive work­ing groups. Enhanced by cur­rent Cairngorm Moun­tain situ­ation. LEAD­ER applic­a­tion sub­mit­ted for research on poten­tial to improve pub­lic transport.	Plans for repair/​replacement of funicu­lar and asso­ci­ated attrac­tions Rein­state com­mit­ment to deliv­ery and agree
Tomin­toul & Glenlivet		T and G Land­scape Part­ner­ship Pro­ject Tomin­toul & Glen­liv­et — Cairngorms Dark Sky Park approved and launched Tomin­toul Museum & Vis­it­or Centre opened East­er 18 | Con­tin­ue to deliv­er agreed pro­ject plan – with a focus on improv­ing the vis­it­or exper­i­ence, inform­a­tion and inter­pret­a­tion for; Dark Skies Park, Scalan and Blairfindy Castle.
Activ­it­ies: Cyc­ling and Low Level Walk­ing. (CBP and CNPA)		Act­ive Aviemore – CNPA lead­ing a part­ner­ship to redesign Aviemore to encour­age act­ive travel In part­ner­ship with com­munit­ies 17 ​‘easy to read’ and web accessible	Act­ive Aviemore to pro­duce an agreed and cos­ted trans­port devel­op­ment plan. Com­ple­tion of A9 options apprais­al for path between Aviemore and Carrbridge
Action 7	CNPA & CBP	CNPA Board agreed in prin­ciple to sup­port estab­lish­ment of a Vis­it­or Giv­ing Scheme (June 2018) 14 volun­teer rangers have been trained and are sup­port­ing the work of 6 part­ner ranger ser­vices. Volun­teer Rangers have now delivered the equi­val­ent of 1.5 years work sup­port­ing part­ner ranger ser­vices in the Nation­al Park. | Cairngorms Trust to launch Vis­it­or Giv­ing scheme as part of Cairngorms Nature Big Week­end * Recruit­ment of new volun­teers and train­ing programmes

Theme 4 – Engage and Inspire	Lead	Deliv­ery	Planned Activ­ity 2019	Status
Action 8 Devel­op and deliv­er a pro­gramme of train­ing and tools for busi­nesses and com­munit­ies to engage them with the Nation­al Park as a brand and to enable them, in turn, to engage our vis­it­ors and get involved in effect­ive and col­lab­or­at­ive mar­ket­ing activity.	CTP	Make it Yours pro­gramme con­tinu­ing with vis­it­or-facing staff. Vis­it­or Sur­vey work­shops held for CNPA staff and CBP mem­bers MIY pro­gramme for out­door activ­ity pro­viders piloted | Cairngorms Vis­it­or Sur­vey com­mences May 2019 Focus of MIY present­a­tions / ses­sions will be with the Loc­al Inform­a­tion Centres Short MIY video
Action 9 Devel­op the Cairngorms Nation­al Park as an integ­ral part of the ​‘iKnow Scot­land’ ini­ti­at­ive both at a loc­al, region­al, and nation­al level and deliv­er an effect­ive net­work of vis­it­or inform­a­tion points and tar­geted mar­ket­ing activ­ity based on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Region­al Mar­ket­ing Strategy.	VS & CNPA	Mar­ket­ing Strategy in place Suc­cess­ful CBP Vis­itScot­land Growth Fund applic­a­tion High level of expos­ure through BBC Win­ter­watch | CNPA — work with and sup­port the 6 new Loc­al Inform­a­tion Centres Spring­Watch and Autum­n­Watch on BBC Growth Fund mar­ket­ing campaign

Theme 5 — Inter­na­tion­al	Lead	Deliv­ery	Planned Activ­ity 2019	Status
Action 10 Identi­fy key tar­get inter­na­tion­al growth mar­kets for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and; Devel­op mar­ket­ing activ­ity to tar­get these mar­kets; and, Work with busi­nesses and part­ners to ensure the vis­it­or exper­i­ence deliv­ers for these groups.	VS & CNPA	CBP China-ready work­shops Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire work to devel­op Cruise Tour­ism. Euro­parc Con­fer­ence Septem­ber 2018 | CBP has secured Vis­itScot­land Growth Fund to take for­ward an £80k pro­ject. Attend­ance at Euro­parc Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Work­shop in Greece Pro­mo­tion of return vis­it by China del­eg­ates from Xingyi City in Guizhou Province