CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 2 25^th Novem­ber 2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: SUS­TAIN­ABLE TOUR­ISM AND STRA­TEGIC TOUR­ISM INFRA­STRUC­TURE PLANS

Pre­pared by:

MUR­RAY FER­GUSON, DIR­ECT­OR OF PLAN­NING AND RUR­AL DEVELOPMENT

COLIN SIMPSON, HEAD OF VIS­TOR SER­VICES AND ACT­IVE TRAVEL

HEATH­ER TRENCH, SUS­TAIN­ABLE TOURSIM OFFICER

Pur­pose

This paper intro­duces two Action Plans which are presen­ted for approv­al, on Sus­tain­able Tour­ism and Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture; a sum­mary of the end of sea­son review of the man­age­ment for vis­it­ors in 2022; and an over­view of related grant expendit­ure on infrastructure.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is asked to:

a) Note the work that has been under­taken by CNPA and part­ner organ­isa­tions on man­age­ment for vis­it­ors in 2022 (Annex I)

b) Note the sum­mary of the grants awar­ded by CNPA to part­ners as part of the Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Pro­gramme (Annex 2)

c) Approve the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan for sub­mis­sion to Euro­parc along with doc­u­ment­a­tion to apply for the European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas (Annex 3)

d) Approve the Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan for sub­mis­sion to Vis­itScot­land (Annex 4).

Back­ground

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan was approved earli­er in 2022 and it high­lighted that a num­ber of more spe­cif­ic Action Plans were required, as shown at Fig­ure I. Some of these Plans are already in place – not­ably the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan for the Park which is par­tic­u­larly rel­ev­ant in provid­ing a com­pre­hens­ive set of policies to ensure any built devel­op­ment will not dam­age the envir­on­ment and will be well-integ­rated with oth­er land uses. Oth­er plans are in pre­par­a­tion and two are presen­ted here for approval.

2. The need and rationale for each Action Plan is spe­cif­ic and involves sub­mis­sion of each Plan to an extern­al body in order to jus­ti­fy stra­tegic pro­grammes of invest­ment or accred­it­a­tion as part of a wider scheme. There­fore, the format of each of the Action Plans is some­what dif­fer­ent. Each Plan adds value to the Out­comes and Object­ives set out in the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and assists in the devel­op­ment and main­ten­ance of the part­ner­ship struc­tures and rela­tion­ships that are import­ant for deliv­ery. The hier­archy of plans is shown in Fig­ure I with each Action Plan pick­ing up primar­ily on the Nature (Green), People (Blue) and Place (Brown) sec­tions of the Plan. The Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan is in pre­par­a­tion, advised by the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group.

Fig­ure 1: Graph­ic from the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan show­ing the hier­archy of plans for the Park

Image of Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan diagram

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park has been accred­ited with the ​“European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas” by the Euro­parc Fed­er­a­tion since 2005. The Park has been re-accred­ited on a 5‑yearly cycle, each time involving a vis­it from a team of inter­na­tion­al sus­tain­able tour­ism experts. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is cur­rently one of only two des­tin­a­tions in UK, and the only Nation­al Park, to be accred­ited through the scheme.

2. The pro­cess of accred­it­a­tion involves sub­mis­sion of a sub­stan­tial pack­age of mater­i­al to Euro­parc, includ­ing a report on what has been delivered over the last five years and an Action Plan which must be in accord with the prin­ciples set out by Europarc:

   a) Giv­ing pri­or­ity to protection

   b) Con­trib­ut­ing to sus­tain­able development

   c) Enga­ging all stakeholders

   d) Plan­ning sus­tain­able tour­ism effectively

   e) Purs­ing con­tinu­ous improvement.

3. All of the back­ground inform­a­tion about the Charter pro­cess is avail­able at https://​www​.euro​parc​.org/​s​u​s​t​a​i​n​a​b​l​e​-​t​o​u​rism/

4. In rela­tion to the Infra­struc­ture Plan, it is not­able that in recent years the Cairngorms Nation­al Park has benefited from invest­ment via the Rur­al Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Fund, admin­istered via Vis­itScot­land. For example, pro­jects have been sup­por­ted at Muir of Din­net Nation­al Nature Reserve and to improve car-park­ing and waste dis­pos­al; at Glen­more to improve act­ive travel and ped­es­tri­an access; and at Glen­shee Ski Centre to improve toilets.

5. In 2021 Vis­itScot­land announced that fund­ing was avail­able for a select num­ber of des­tin­a­tions to pre­pare Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plans. These Plans were inten­ded to help under­pin future fund­ing bids and make the pro­cess more stra­tegic and impact­ful. CNPA bid suc­cess­fully for this fund­ing and the pro­posed new Action Plan was embed­ded in the NP Part­ner­ship Plan.

Stra­tegic Context

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan has now been approved and acts as the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Strategy for the des­tin­a­tion. There are of course many Object­ives in the Plan that relate to sus­tain­able tour­ism but the most dir­ectly rel­ev­ant is in the Place section:

   a) Object­ive C6: A Sus­tain­able Des­tin­a­tion – Secure the Nation­al Park’s repu­ta­tion as an inter­na­tion­al exem­plar in sus­tain­able tour­ism and the man­age­ment of pro­tec­ted areas.

   b) Tar­get: The NP con­tin­ues to be accred­ited with the European Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Pro­tec­ted Areas and the Glas­gow Declar­a­tion (Cli­mate Action in Tourism)

2. There are sev­er­al ref­er­ences to the import­ance of improv­ing Infra­struc­ture in the NPPP and the most dir­ectly rel­ev­ant Object­ive is:

a) Object­ive C9: High qual­ity vis­it­or exper­i­ence – Wel­come vis­it­ors and provide high qual­ity exper­i­ence while man­aging their impacts through provid­ing bet­ter infra­struc­ture and high-qual­ity Ranger Services

b) Tar­gets:

i. Number of public toilets within the National Park is maintained

ii. Increased public toilet facilities for people with additional needs

1. The Part­ner­ship Plan also sets out the five guid­ing prin­ciples for all cap­it­al invest­ment in the Nation­al Park:

   a) Green — Infra­struc­ture will con­trib­ute to deliv­er­ing net zero and strength­en­ing the nat­ur­al and social cap­it­al of the Nation­al Park.

   b) Cairngorms — Infra­struc­ture will focus on the needs of the Nation­al Park and will con­trib­ute to the long-term out­comes as set out in the Part­ner­ship Plan.

   c) Employ­ment — Infra­struc­ture will max­im­ise loc­al employ­ment and sup­port the devel­op­ment of a well­being economy.

   d) Long-term — Infra­struc­ture invest­ment will be focused on long-term solu­tions to key issues around vis­it­or man­age­ment, trans­port, flood man­age­ment etc.

   e) Equal­it­ies, diversity and inclu­sion — Infra­struc­ture will help to ensure that the Cairngorms is a Park for All.

Review on Man­age­ment for Vis­it­ors in 2022

1. The new arrange­ments for the Man­age­ment of Vis­it­ors that had been put in place dur­ing ²⁰²⁰⁄₂₁ peri­od were con­tin­ued and improved, com­pris­ing reg­u­lar meet­ings of the Man­aging for Vis­it­ors Group the deploy­ment of the CNPA Ranger Ser­vice and expendit­ure on cap­it­al improve­ments. Over­all, the arrange­ments worked well, and a brief review is attached at Annex A. Look­ing ahead, the main areas to be developed in 2023 are:

   • Imple­ment­a­tion of pro­jects arising from the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and from the two Action Plans presen­ted here and integ­ra­tion with the deliv­ery phase of Cairngorms 2030 (Her­it­age Hori­zons) Programme.

   • Enhanced coordin­a­tion of work in Cairngorm and Glen­more area, espe­cially in rela­tion to the man­age­ment of trans­port and parking.

   • Increased use of CNPA Ranger Ser­vice for man­age­ment and mon­it­or­ing pur­poses as part of reg­u­lar patrols.

   • Integ­ra­tion of vis­it­or man­age­ment activ­ity with Geo­graph­ic Inform­a­tion Sys­tems and their use for plan­ning and man­age­ment purposes.

   • Fur­ther devel­op­ment of skills and train­ing of ranger ser­vices with a focus on devel­op­ment of new entrants and young people.

   • Devel­op­ment of the new Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan which will also cov­er volun­teer­ing, green-health and activ­ity, pro­mot­ing out­door access, out­door learn­ing, etc.

Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Programme

1. Over the last two years CNPA has developed and delivered the Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Pro­gramme which has sup­por­ted a range of pro­jects to address crit­ic­al issues in the man­age­ment for vis­it­ors by provid­ing grant aid.

2. In each year CNPA invited the sub­mis­sion of Expres­sions of Interest from land man­agers through the Man­aging for Vis­it­ors Group and assessed pro­ject pro­pos­als against the fol­low­ing cri­ter­ia. Pro­jects selec­ted for fund­ing should:

   • Provide a warm wel­come for vis­it­ors and sup­port excep­tion­al experiences

   • Mit­ig­ate any neg­at­ive impacts from increased recre­ation in sens­it­ive or pop­u­lar sites

   • Reduce poten­tial con­flict between res­id­ents and vis­it­ors and/​or between users

   • Pro­mote col­lab­or­a­tion across land man­age­ment and organ­isa­tion­al bound­ar­ies ensur­ing a pos­it­ive vis­it­or experience

   • Con­trib­ute to deliv­ery of the Man­aging for Vis­it­ors Plan

3. A brief report on how the scheme was developed and delivered is attached at Annex B. Assum­ing that suit­able budget is approved in March 2023 a sim­il­ar pro­gramme will be rolled out.

Pro­cess to devel­op the Action Plans

1. To pre­pare each of the two Action Plans we have drawn on feed­back received from the con­sulta­tion on the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan in Decem­ber 2021. Dis­cus­sion has taken place along­side a trawl for pro­ject pro­pos­als and ideas with the Cairngorms Tour­ism Part­ner­ship, the Man­aging for Vis­it­ors Group and the Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el. CNPA Board had inform­al dis­cus­sions ses­sions about the Infra­struc­ture Plan in June 2022 and on both plans in Octo­ber 2022.

2. Since embark­ing on pre­par­a­tion of the Plan, CNPA has also been work­ing on the devel­op­ment phase of the Cairngorms 2030 (Her­it­age Hori­zons) Pro­gramme, much of which involves the scop­ing and devel­op­ment of act­ive travel and related infra­struc­ture. The devel­op­ment phase of the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme will not be com­plete by the time of sub­mis­sion of the Plans to Vis­itScot­land and Eurpoarc and so an earli­er mid-term review may be required, towards the end of ²⁰²³⁄₂₄.

Next steps

1. The key next steps with the work out­lined above are:

   • Dec 2022: Sub­mis­sion of each the two Action Plans to Euro­parc and to VisitScotland

   • March 2023: Cor­por­ate Plan and Oper­a­tion­al Plan approv­al by Board includ­ing Her­it­age Horizons.

   • Spring 2023: Euro­parc Veri­fi­ers vis­it for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan and new phase of Vis­it­or Infra­struc­ture Improve­ment Programme

   • Jun 2023: Sub­mis­sion of plans for Deliv­ery Phase of Cairngorms 2030 (Her­it­age Hori­zons) Programme

   • Dec 2023: Awards cere­mony for Euro­parc Charter

Mur­ray Fer­guson, Colin Simpson and Heath­er Trench

CNPA