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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Paper 3 Annex 2 07/04/06 


COMMUNICATIONS PLAN: 
EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN PROTECTED 
AREAS AND THE CAIRNGORMS BRAND 

European Charter for Sustainable Tourism 

1. The Cairngorms National Park Authority has recently been awarded the 
European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas. It is the first 
National Park in the UK to receive this. In essence, the Charter should be 
seen as an accreditation of the Park’s Sustainable Tourism Strategy and 
Action Plan. Put simply, it shows that the way in which tourism 
development and support is to be taken forward (by various partners - not 
just the CNPA) strikes an appropriate balance between economic, social and 
environmental objectives. 


Cairngorms Brand 

2. One of the key actions within the Sustainable Tourism Strategy and Action 
Plan is the development and roll out of a Cairngorms Brand. This brand is 
not simply about establishing an identity for the CNP. It is also a tool for 
helping to embed some of the values associated with the Park, specifically 
high standards of quality and of environmental management. If customers 
understand this, it provides even greater marketing advantage for those 
businesses/groups or products that are eligible to use the brand than would 
be the case if it was purely a geographical logo. At the same time, if 
businesses/groups see the brand as creating marketing advantage, those that 
do not currently meet the eligibility criteria for the brand will be more likely 
to pursue the accreditation that is required to access it. 

3. Information on the criteria that have been set so far by the Cairngorms Brand 
Management Group (BMG) for use of the Brand has recently been circulated 
to Board members, the ViSIT Forum and all tourism enterprises on the Park 
Authority database. The current criteria will continue to evolve and develop 
as the criteria for additional business sectors such as golf clubs, ski schools etc 
is agreed by the BMG. 


Relationship between the Charter and the Brand 

4. At this stage, use of the Cairngorms Brand is intended to convey a message 
about the group/business/product with which it is being associated, i.e. that 
they are of high quality and meet high environmental standards. Use of the 
European Charter mark at this level would not mean the same thing. Care 
therefore needs to be taken as to how the Charter mark and the brand are 
used, if we are to avoid sending out confusing messages. 

5. As an added complication, Part 2 of the European Charter is to be developed 
so that individual enterprises can be accredited, based on a commitment to 
quality standards and environmental sustainability. The administration of 
this stage will be the responsibility of the individual Charter Park although 
there is an assumption that existing accreditation schemes will be built upon. 
Thus, the current eligibility criteria and administrative arrangements for the 
Cairngorms Brand could almost certainly be used to allow business use of the 
Charter mark. As work progresses at the European level on the use of the 
Charter Mark by individual businesses, consideration will need to be given as 
to whether this is a route we would want to go down in the CNP or not. 

6. Given the link between the European Charter and the Cairngorms Brand, and 
the importance of getting key messages out to stakeholders, this 
communications plan seeks to clarify the key messages, target audiences and 
channels of communication. 

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