Notes of Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group Meeting

Note of meet­ing on 30 March under the three themes agreed at first meeting:

1. Sta­bil­ize

• Reg­u­lar brief­ing emails — very use­ful info con­tin­ues to be cir­cu­lated by CBP, STA, VA. etc — please register dir­ect with each organ­isa­tion to receive them. Scot­tish Enter­prise has pre­pared a use­ful plan­ning tool with prac­tic­al tips to help you con­sider what actions you may want to con­sider in order to pre­pare for, and mit­ig­ate against, the chal­lenges and dis­rup­tion being faced. COV­ID-19 Tour­ism Check­list and Action Plan »
• Busi­ness sup­port sys­tems are being developed as quickly as pos­sible. Remem­ber there is short delay between polit­ic­al announce­ments and pub­lic agen­cies get­ting guid­ance and devel­op­ing the sys­tems. Key issues at present are the switch­ing of staff from sum­mer to winter jobs, the restric­tions on help to people in self-cater­ing only where it is primary source of income. Polit­ic­al lob­by­ing is going on for these issues. Remind­er that if an organ­isa­tion gets pub­lic sup­port than it may con­flict with Fur­lough arrange­ments. And all accom­mod­a­tion should close unless has per­mis­sion of loc­al author­ity. Some chal­lenges with each loc­al author­ity hav­ing to inter­pret what is essen­tial work.
• Travel to the coun­tryside and out­door access – a lot of work has gone on to get mes­saging out and get bal­ance right with encour­aging healthy loc­al access. Coun­tryside car parks now closed where pos­sible. Enforce­ment is tak­ing place via police. Over­all pub­lic are now com­ply­ing with restrictions
• Com­munity-led activ­ity – lot of work going on at com­munity level to coordin­ate volun­teers, provide phone lines, deliv­er pre­scrip­tions and food etc. Many busi­nesses involved. Nation­al Volun­teer­ing plan was launched on 30 March https://www.gov.scot/news/national-volunteering-plan-for-coronavirus/

2 Com­mu­nic­ate, Inspire and Plan

• Com­mu­nic­ate and Inspire vis­it­ors – all parties were using social media and oth­er chan­nels to get inform­a­tion about des­tin­a­tion and nature online. Good use made of Make it Yours mater­i­als. Cairngorms Nature Big Week­end should take place as vir­tu­al events with part­ners. Agree­ment that good use should be made of school hol­i­days to keep people engaged.
• Plan — dis­cus­sion took place and agreed that plan­ning for fol­low­ing time­frames was sens­ible ‑4 months/​end of March 2021/ next two years. Agreed that CВР and CNPA should work up short plan for dis­cus­sion at future meeting
• Vis­itScot­land Sur­vey – was due to be com­plete on 30 March and ana­lys­is would be circulated
• Cairngorms Vis­it­or sur­vey res­ults – a total of ²²⁶⁵⁄₂₅₀₀ inter­views com­plete and sum­mary to be cir­cu­lated to key part­ners. Con­sult­ants will be ana­lys­ing the data over the next month and pre­par­ing a draft report by May. Should con­tain use­ful info to plan for recovery.

3 Pre­pare for Return

• Dis­cus­sion took place about likely scen­ari­os for lift­ing of restric­tions – likely to be phased return and emphas­is placed on domest­ic mar­kets. Vis­it­ors were likely to need reas­sur­ance about secur­ity, safety, hygiene, etc. Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire and

oth­ers noted that emphas­is would con­tin­ue to be placed on out­door and adventure

4 Updates from each organ­isa­tion rel­ev­ant to Cairngorms Nation­al Park

• HIE — explained work they are doing to roll out sup­port to third sec­tor and com­munity organ­isa­tions. Cur­rently identi­fy­ing anchor organ­isa­tion at loc­al level to dis­trib­ute funds e.g. Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strath­spey. Bey­ond HIE the area funds were being dis­trib­uted via DTAS. Note that Moray area is part of Grampi­an Hub at https://​www​.gcah​.org​.uk/ but that com­munity funds would be dis­trib­uted via HIE Moray
• Cairngorm Moun­tain — vis­it­or facil­it­ies now closed and only essen­tial work going on site. Mas­ter-plan­ning work would con­tin­ue with con­sulta­tion online in April.
• CNPA: Cov­id 19 page is con­tinu­ally updated with links at https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​w​o​r​k​i​n​g​-​t​o​g​e​t​h​e​r​/​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​-​c​o​r​o​n​a​v​i​r​u​s​-​u​p​date/

1. Next meet­ing

• Monday 6 April, 1100 to 1200 — I hour max­im­um. Please send any­thing in par­tic­u­lar for agenda to Murray

Remit of Group: The Group has been set up to provide con­sist­ent and com­pre­hens­ive ana­lys­is of the implic­a­tions of Cov­id-19 for tour­ism, to coordin­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions with the tour­ism industry, ensure close work­ing between key agen­cies and the private sec­tor, to gath­er, share, facil­it­ate, inter­pret and dis­sem­in­ate inform­a­tion and agree rel­ev­ant actions and deliv­ery plans.

Mem­ber­ship: The Group con­sists of rep­res­ent­at­ives from Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire, MoraySpey­side, Vis­itScot­land, Aber­deen­shire Coun­cil, High­land Coun­cil, High­lands and Islands Enter­prise and CNPA (Chair).