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ViSIT Forum 090605 Paper 2 

EUROPARC VERIFICATION 25/26TH MAY 2005 

1. The ViSIT Forum were advised at the last meeting that Richard Partington had 
been appointed by Europarc as the expert verifier for the Cairngorms National 
Park Authority submission for the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism 
in Protected Areas. This verification process was undertaken at the end of 
May and a programme involving a number of ViSIT Forum members was 
arranged including representatives from the private sector interests, Tourist 
Information Centres, visitor attractions and organisations such as 
VisitScotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and Eastern Cairngorms Access 
Project. 

2. Richard Partington asked questions relating to the value that each participant 
places on the environment and how it is managed in sustainable tourism terms; 
how tourism stakeholders were involved in the development of the Strategy 
and Action Plan; and how partners can contribute to the management of 
sustainable tourism within the National Park in the future. 

3. A report of the visit will be submitted to Europarc for consideration at the end 
of June, and we should therefore hear the outcome in early July. A separate 
report will be received by the NPA in due course. If we are successful the 
Charter will be awarded at the Europarc conference in the Netherlands in 
September. 

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

4. An annual conference to encourage all tourism stakeholders to become 
involved in the delivery of the Action Plan is a requirement of the European 
Charter, and this is action 2e of the Action Plan. It is suggested that this 
should be held in October, following the workshop held last October in 
Ballater. 

5. It is suggested that the following subjects might be included in the 
conference/workshop, and views of the ViSIT Forum members are invited at 
this stage to allow a draft programme to be developed for finalisation at the 
September meeting of the Forum: 

• Raising awareness of the Charter, and accreditation and what that 
means for the National Park area and tourism enterprises (supposing 
the Charter has been awarded). Highlighting areas where further work 
is required if we have not been accredited. 

• Raising awareness about the Cairngorms brand, the criteria for use etc 
and the link to part 2 of the Charter which is about recognising 
individual tourism enterprises and their commitment to the Charter 
Principles 

• Discussions on local initiatives that might be broadened out Park wide, 
or replicated elsewhere in the Park eg the Aviemore, Badenoch, 
Strathspey and Cairngorms Marketing group 

• The work of the Local Outdoor Access Forum 

• Visitor Pay Back Schemes, an initial discussion