Tourism strategy consultation response

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Con­sulta­tion Response: High­land Coun­cil Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Strategy

Q1: What is your rela­tion­ship to High­land? The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is an NDPB with respons­ib­il­ity for the UK’s largest Nation­al Park. Roughly one third of the Nation­al Park’s land falls with­in the High­land Coun­cil area and it is home to the major­ity of the Park’s pop­u­la­tion, vis­it­ors and tour­ism businesses.

The Park Author­ity acts as the Plan­ning Author­ity and Out­door Access Author­ity for the Nation­al Park. We also pub­lish a 5‑yearly Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, along with sup­port­ing action plans includ­ing a Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan.

The NPPP is an over­arch­ing plan for the Cairngorms as a place, not the Park Author­ity as an organ­isa­tion. As a pub­lic-sec­tor part­ner, High­land Coun­cil have a stat­utory oblig­a­tion to have due regard to the NPPP and are involved in deliv­ery, par­tic­u­larly around the fol­low­ing NPPP priorities:

C5. Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park. Object­ive: Work 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. Object­ive: Secure the Nation­al Park’s repu­ta­tion as an inter­na­tion­al exem­plar in sus­tain­able tour­ism and the man­age­ment of pro­tec­ted areas.

C8. Access­ible Path & Cycle Net­work Object­ive: Improve path, cycle and out­door access net­works to give out­stand­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to exper­i­ence the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park to the widest range of people, while min­im­ising dis­turb­ance to vul­ner­able spe­cies, hab­it­ats and sites.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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C9. High-Qual­ity Vis­it­or Exper­i­ence. Object­ive: Wel­come vis­it­ors and provide a high-qual­ity exper­i­ence while man­aging their impacts through provid­ing bet­ter infra­struc­ture and high- qual­ity ranger services.

Q2. Do you feel that the Coun­cil has missed any stra­tegic factors that impact the tour­ism industry? While referred to briefly else­where in the doc­u­ment, we con­sider that the chal­lenges of man­aging vis­it­or pres­sures at coun­tryside sites should be included as in the ​‘Stra­tegic Con­text’ sec­tion as a point in the ​‘strong head­winds’ section.

Issues such as inap­pro­pri­ate camper­van park­ing, road­side camp­ing and fires not only affect loc­al com­munit­ies and the envir­on­ment but can also have a neg­at­ive effect on vis­it­or exper­i­ence and enjoyment.

Q3. Do you agree with the Council’s vis­ion for the next 10 years? The vis­ion is suit­ably ambi­tious, but this sec­tion could be bolder in terms of part­ner­ship work, aim­ing to unite industry, pub­lic sec­tor part­ners, des­tin­a­tion organ­isa­tions and oth­er stake­hold­ers around a wider vis­ion and strategy for the High­lands as a des­tin­a­tion. Our Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan could be a good mod­el for this way of working.

Q4. Do you agree with the Council’s stra­tegic pri­or­it­ies? These pri­or­it­ies feel some­what gen­er­ic. It may be bet­ter to lay out clear­er object­ives and per­haps tar­gets for each of the three pri­or­ity areas high­lighted. This would also allow more mean­ing­ful mon­it­or­ing of delivery.

Q5. Do you agree with the Council’s list of activ­it­ies and their pri­or­ity order? While it is use­ful to include wider eco­nom­ic con­text and acknow­ledge the wide range of related work car­ried out by the coun­cil, this sec­tion would bene­fit from a fur­ther degree of pri­or­it­isa­tion to focus the strategy on those actions that can

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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dir­ectly sup­port a sus­tain­able vis­it­or eco­nomy. We also con­sider that the word­ing of some pri­or­it­ies could make clear­er how these may be delivered in prac­tice, although we real­ise that a deliv­ery plan will be developed as the next stage of the process.

Q6. Do you agree with the approach to deliv­er­ing the strategy? We wel­come the acknow­ledge­ment that part­ner­ship work­ing will be import­ant, both at a High­land and loc­al level, but would prefer to see this more clearly embed­ded in the strategy. For example, it may be help­ful in devel­op­ing the Deliv­ery Plan, to also include details of part­ner con­tri­bu­tions to deliv­ery along­side the work of the council.

A second work­shop for industry and key part­ners around the detail of the deliv­ery plan would also help to build and retain wider buy-in to the work.

No men­tion has been made of mon­it­or­ing the suc­cess­ful deliv­ery of the strategy. We would sug­gest set­ting out clear­er object­ives and tar­gets, along with key indic­at­ors and data sources for monitoring.

We note that the vis­ion and pri­or­it­ies should provide stra­tegic dir­ec­tion for the next 10 years, but the wider stra­tegic con­text is likely to change over that peri­od. It would be use­ful to con­sider how the strategy may be revised, updated and amended as neces­sary over that peri­od. While a 10-year plan is use­ful for infra­struc­ture invest­ment, oth­er ele­ments of the vis­it­or eco­nomy may require a flex­ible approach

Monday 24^th June 2024