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Tourism - Engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 1 of 86

Top­ic: Tourism

Engage­ment ver­sion August 2024

Require­ments addressed in this section

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(a)the prin­cip­al phys­ic­al, [cul­tur­al], [eco­nom­ic], social, [built her­it­age] and envir­on­ment­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the district,
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used,

Links to evidence

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 6 of 86 and-analysis/2020/11/summary-report-socioeconomic-biodiversity-impacts-driven-grouse-moors-employment-rights-gamekeepers/documents/summary-report-socioeconomic-biodiversity-impacts-driven-grouse-moors-employment-rights-gamekeepers/summary-report-socioeconomic-biodiversity-impacts-driven-grouse-moors-employment-rights-gamekeepers/govscot%3Adocument/summary-report-socioeconomic-biodiversity-impacts-driven-grouse-moors-employment-rights-gamekeepers.pdf

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 7 of 86

Sum­mary of evidence

Policy con­text

Nation­al Park (Scot­land) Act 2000

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). Two of the four aims of the Nation­al Park Act are par­tic­u­larly rel­ev­ant in the con­text of vis­it­or infra­struc­ture and the vis­it­or eco­nomy. The third aim is ​‘to pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the pub­lic’. The fourth aim is ​‘to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s com­munit­ies’. The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Scot­land Out­look 2030: Respons­ible Tour­ism for a Sus­tain­able Future

The Nation­al Strategy for tour­ism in Scot­land to be delivered by the fol­low­ing part­ners: Scot­tish Tour­ism Alli­ance, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment, Vis­itScot­land, Scot­tish Enter­prise, High­lands and Islands Enter­prise and Skills Devel­op­ment Scot­land. Recog­nising the import­ance of the tour­ism sec­tor to Scotland’s eco­nom­ic strategy, it sup­ports the vis­ion of Scot­land becom­ing a 21st cen­tury tour­ism world lead­er. The strategy deliv­ers strong focus on sus­tain­ab­il­ity delivered through the four main priorities:

  • Our pas­sion­ate people – adop­tion of fair work prac­tices and increased career mobil­ity in the sec­tor. Seek­ing to increase diversity in the sec­tors’ workforce.

  • Our thriv­ing places – engage loc­al com­munit­ies to become stake­hold­ers in the sec­tor, to assist Des­tin­a­tion Man­age­ment Organisation’s to man­age tour­ism effect­ively and responsibly.

  • Our diverse busi­nesses – sup­port­ing the sec­tor to become more entre­pren­eur­i­al, agile and resi­li­ent. Also driv­ing change to help the sec­tor com­mit to sus­tain­able practices.

  • Our mem­or­able exper­i­ences – recog­nising the need to ensure the sec­tor is deliv­er­ing inclus­ive and access­ible destinations.

The Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship act as the Des­tin­a­tion Man­age­ment Organ­isa­tion for the Nation­al Park Area, delivered through www​.vis​it​cairngorms​.com.

Scot­land Out­look 2030 advoc­ates for sus­tain­able growth with every­one play­ing and act­ive role, while pro­tect­ing people and place. Its mis­sion, recog­nising the need for increased inclu­sion is that; ​‘Togeth­er we will grow the value and pos­it­ively enhance the bene­fits of tour­ism across Scot­land by deliv­er­ing the very best for our vis­it­ors, our busi­nesses, our people, our com­munit­ies and our environment.’

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The strategy fur­ther high­lights the need for net-zero with­in the tour­ism sec­tor to con­trib­ute to the nation­al ambi­tion of a net-zero Scot­land by 2045. To achieve its vis­ion six nation­al pri­or­it­ies have been iden­ti­fied namely:

  1. Improv­ing Digit­al Infra­struc­ture and use in under­stand­ing the sec­tor through data col­lec­tion and analytics.
  2. Strong policy that sup­ports the 21st cen­tury tour­ism vision.
  3. Access to pub­lic and private invest­ment to ensure con­tin­ued growth.
  4. Improv­ing con­nectiv­ity – through bet­ter trans­port and digit­al con­nectiv­ity infrastructure.
  5. Bet­ter col­lab­or­a­tion through stronger cross sec­tor net­work­ing to improve col­lab­or­a­tion deliv­er­ing great­er eco­nom­ic value.
  6. Pos­i­tion­ing Scotland’s tour­ism industry both nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally to attract growth in both vis­it­or num­bers and employ­ment opportunities.

Vis­it Scot­land Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Plan

This is Vis­it Scotland’s coordin­ated Scot­land-wide stra­tegic approach which aims to edu­cate key audi­ences to enjoy Scotland’s coun­tryside respons­ibly. It pulls togeth­er the cur­rent and planned actions into a cohes­ive and aligned dir­ec­tion of travel.

The Plan offers a vis­ion of how the vis­it­or exper­i­ence in Scot­land will devel­op over a 10-year peri­od. An action log records pro­gress against its four strategy pillars:

  • Edu­cat­ing our cur­rent and future visitors.

  • Invest­ing in Scotland’s cur­rent and future vis­it­or man­age­ment infra­struc­ture and services.

  • Deliv­er­ing a joined up and cohes­ive action plan across Scotland.

  • Becom­ing and remain­ing a world lead­er in vis­it­or management.

The Plan iden­ti­fies the Cairngorms Nation­al Park as a key man­age­ment hot­spot. This approach to man­aging the chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with this status are set out with­in the Park Authority’s Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan and Sus­tain­able Infra­struc­ture Plan.

Our Past, Our Future: The Strategy for Scotland’s His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment 2023

Our Past, Our Future recog­nises the import­ance his­tor­ic envir­on­ment­al to the vis­it­or eco­nomy and a num­ber of its pri­or­it­ies seek to encour­age sus­tain­able tour­ism. These are:

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  • Pri­or­ity 1 — Deliv­er­ing the trans­ition to net zero, which will include work to reduce emis­sions from her­it­age tour­ism visits.
  • Pri­or­ity 3 — Build­ing a well­being eco­nomy, which will include work to devel­op and share approaches to respons­ible tour­ism, ensur­ing tour­ism con­trib­utes to the eco­nomy without being det­ri­ment­al to com­munit­ies and the environment.

These pri­or­it­ies align with those of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027 and the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan may sup­port these through its spa­tial strategy.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

The Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 sets out the Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy for Scot­land. Its focus on the three main policy themes of sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places aligns with Scotland’s aim of deliv­er­ing on the United Nations Sus­tain­able Goals. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4, in rela­tion to tour­ism, aims to deliv­er net zero along­side a well-being economy.

Policy 30 spe­cific­ally addresses tour­ism, which is inten­ded to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment which bene­fits loc­al people, is con­sist­ent with our net zero and nature com­mit­ments, and inspires people to vis­it Scot­land. Accord­ing to the policy Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans must:

  • Sup­port the recov­ery, growth and long-term resi­li­ence of the tour­ism sector.
  • Take account of rel­ev­ant nation­al and loc­al sec­tor driv­en tour­ism strategies.

And have a spa­tial strategy that:

  • Identi­fy suit­able loc­a­tions which reflect oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism devel­op­ment by tak­ing full account of the needs of com­munit­ies, vis­it­ors, the industry and the environment.
  • Identi­fy areas of pres­sure where exist­ing tour­ism pro­vi­sion is hav­ing adverse impacts on the envir­on­ment or the qual­ity of life and health and well­being of loc­al com­munit­ies, and where fur­ther devel­op­ment is not appropriate.

Oth­er key policy con­nec­tions include: 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027

While the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan must be con­sidered as a whole, the fol­low­ing object­ives are of par­tic­u­lar rel­ev­ance to this topic:

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  • B10. A Park for all aims to ensure that bet­ter oppor­tun­it­ies for every­one to enjoy the Nation­al Park. This means pro­mot­ing and sup­port­ing a vis­it­or pro­file that is more diverse, espe­cially in regard to people who are dis­abled, from low socio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds, LGB­TQ+ and vis­it­ors from minor­ity eth­nic groups.
  • C1. Hous­ing aims to ensure that there is suf­fi­cient afford­able hous­ing stock to enable people to live and work with­in the Nation­al Park. The Part­ner­ship Plan sets out the need to under­stand bet­ter the eco­nom­ic and social dynam­ics behind second homes, vacant and short-term lets, and reduce the loss of exist­ing or newly-built prop­er­ties to such uses.
  • C5. Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park aims to sta­bil­ise vis­it­or num­bers in the peak sea­son, focus­ing growth on quieter months and on those areas that have the infra­struc­ture and capa­city to accom­mod­ate addi­tion­al visitors.
  • C6. A sus­tain­able des­tin­a­tion aims to secure the Nation­al Park’s repu­ta­tion as an inter­na­tion­al exem­plar in sus­tain­able tour­ism and man­age­ment of pro­tec­ted areas.
  • C7. Trans­port to and around the Nation­al Park seeks to address the need to improve the pub­lic trans­port and act­ive travel pro­vi­sion in the Nation­al Park for vis­it­ors (and res­id­ents). The tar­gets set out by the policy will require addi­tion­al infra­struc­ture to sup­port the goals. Spe­cific­ally tar­gets include: 20% of cur­rent jour­neys by vis­it­ors, com­muters and res­id­ents to be com­pleted by a means oth­er than cars, and 25% of vis­it­ors to access the Nation­al Park by pub­lic trans­port. The lat­ter is, a to a great extend out­with the con­trol of the Park Author­ity, reli­ant on improve­ments to nation­al pub­lic trans­port oper­a­tions. Pro­vi­sion in the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan should be made for E‑bike and adap­ted bike hire facil­it­ies and char­ging facil­it­ies in all the major vis­it­or hubs by 2030.
  • C8 Access­ible path and cycle net­work seeks to address the need to improve the exist­ing path, cycle and out­door access net­works in the Nation­al Park. To com­ply with the policy the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan should encour­age the devel­op­ment of addi­tion­al safe and inclus­ive off-road or segreg­ated on-road routes between com­munit­ies by 2030.
  • C9. High-qual­ity vis­it­or exper­i­ence addresses the need for bet­ter infra­struc­ture to sup­port increased capa­city while redu­cing vis­it­or impact. The next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan will need to ensure devel­op­ment sup­ports the need for increased toi­let and chan­ging facil­it­ies for people with addi­tion­al needs (Policy C4).

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Page 11 of 86

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