Meetings

Cairngorms Tourism Partnership 

15th March, 2021

Location: Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group - Via Video-Conference

Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group 15th March 2021, 11am.

1.Welcome & Apologies

Present: Mark, Laurie, Murray, Pete, Heather Apologies: Janet, Grant, Alistair, Rhona, Chris F, Colin, Rhona, Chris T, Geva

2.RESPOND

Business Support update

Alistair sent an update on business support from Aberdeenshire Council. The 1^st and 2^nd wave of B&B fund applicants have been contacted and the 3^rd wave applications for those not included in earlier rounds open tomorrow.   They are still in discussion with government over some large B&B not on assessors’ list.  A paper on the Discretionary Fund is being considered this week regarding distribution of additional funding.  Applications are slowing for the Strategic Framework Fund which is likely to be extended to June.

Key issues from DMOs

Laurie and Mark confirmed that business support seemed to be running fairly smoothly.  However clarity for re-opening is urgently needed from tomorrow’s government announcement. CBP have an open meeting with Fergus Ewing tomorrow morning in advance of the government announcement, and have set up a series of sectoral re-opening meetings over the next few weeks. MoraySpeyside are also having re-opening conversations with businesses.  They have been invited to input to a new Northeast Resilience group.  Chris F is also involved and has flagged up the key role of CNPA in Deeside.   It was agreed that Murray would chat to Rhona Gunn to improve contact between CNPA and Moray Council staff.  Pete advised that Moray Council had windfarm funding for a new Speyside Way website.  CNPA preference would be for DMOs to lead on that.

3.RESET

CBP operational readiness survey results (attached)

There are few surprises in the survey results.  Key issues were again identified as Covid restrictions, cash flow, staff availability and the time required to train new employees and furloughed staff. The results have been circulated to Fergus Ewing, Scottish Chambers of Commerce and Scottish Tourism Alliance.

4.RESTART

Visitor management issues in light of slight easing of restrictions 12/03

At the CNPA board meeting last week there was a discussion as part of a budget paper on the employment of full time rangers, which was approved.  Eight seasonal rangers are already employed and started training today.  They will be on the ground from end March.  FLS, NTS and NatureScot will also have more staff on the ground. In terms of ranger communications:

• Seasonal rangers welcomed the CBP campervan work, but were concerned that not all wider messaging was aligned.
• Two meetings have been held, with rangers from the East & West of the National Park, to discuss collective communication.
• Fortnightly managing for visitors meetings are now taking place again with land managers.
• Feedback from rangers will be fed into CTERG weekely or fortnightly.
• Rangers will be advised to check the CBP status website for up-to-date information for visitors.
• Core messages should also be made available for wider frontline staff.

Re-opening with Confidence - #cairngormstogether community meetings 01/03/21

Mark said that the meetings went well, but this needs wider PR to get the message out to local communities.  CNPA already plan to put out a blog from Janet, and some tourism infographics, but some wider press would also be good. Heather and Pete to discuss with Olly.  CBP will also do some PR around the sector meetings next week.

National and local visitor management groups

VS have organised a visitor management summit on the 19^th March.  Mark and Olly will be attending the Education and Marketing group on Thursday before that. Laurie advised that FLS in Moray are planning to continue their campervan provision project into 2021.

Messaging for Easter and re-opening. 

Mark and Olly will today be discussing final messaging.

5.RECOVER

N/a

6.Any Other Updates

N/a

7.Date of next meeting

Monday 29^th March 2021 @ 11am

Board Meeting 

12th March, 2021

Location: Via Lifesize Video Conferencing

See Notice of Meeting for link

Audit & Risk Committee 

12th March, 2021

Location: Via video-conference

Cairngorms Tourism Partnership 

1st March, 2021

Location: Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group - Via Video-Conference

Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group 1st March 2021, 11am.

Present: Janet, Murray, Pete, Heather, Mark, Chris F, Chris T, Grant, Laurie, Alistair, Colin. Apologies: Rhona, Belinda, Geva

1.Welcome and introductions

2.RESPOND

Business Support update

Colin and Alistair gave an update on the local authority managed funding schemes: - The strategic framework funding is relatively straightforward, though Aberdeenshire have had to deal with enquiries from many ineligible businesses. - The discretionary fund in Highland has had some technical issues around uploading supporting information.  If additional funding is made available, it is likely that the threshold for support will be dropped to those businesses suffering a 30% drop in income.  Aberdeenshire’s scheme already has a 30% threshold.  It is likely that any further funding here would increase the level of support received by eligible businesses. - Details of the new B&B scheme have not yet been released, as criteria are proving more complicated than expected. - There remains an issue with the large self-catering premises scheme in that owners of multiple premises are excluded unless there are at least 7 beds in one single property.  The Scottish Government have been asked to reconsider this. In discussion it was flagged up that there still remain a small number of businesses falling through gaps in support.  However a larger problem is that the amount of support for businesses varies widely.  Fixed levels of support from some schemes means that some businesses will have no drop in income, while others are receiving only a small percentage of their usual income.  There is also an issue where businesses have diversified, as many new schemes are targeting specific sectors.

Key issues from DMOs

-          There has been disappointment and anger from many businesses about the lack of business re-opening information in the Scottish Government’s Strategic Framework update last week.  Discussions about what that framework looks like are taking place with business groups to try to influence decision such as support for level 2 businesses when visitors cannot travel from level 3 & 4 areas.  It is key that information is available ASAP to allow businesses to plan for re-opening and marketing.  As things stand, businesses are missing bookings from an English market currently able to book in England with more confidence. -          There are also frustrations about delays to some of the business support schemes. -          Moray Council are planning some visitor management interventions this summer, including from campervans which has caused some issues with campsites. -          News of a few cases of the Brazilian covid variant arriving in Aberdeen may have communications implications for VistAberdeenshire.

VisitScotland Overview

VisitScotland and the wider STERG group are liaising with government on the need to give business clarity on lead times for re-opening.  220 VS staff are currently working on the 13 funding schemes they administer, which is a significant proportion of overall staff.  There are dedicated emails for each scheme if businesses have questions about them.  Because they are working to allocate fixed levels of funding, there will be a period of analysing applications and processing appeals after the application deadline before awards can be made.  The timescale for schemes varies, but a press release will be issued this week to give an update.

3.RESET

 Strategic Framework update 23/2/21

It was agreed that it might be appropriate for CTP to add to the many voices calling for clarity for business re-opening, particularly around support for level 2 businesses within a tiered system that stops many visitors from travelling.  It may also pick up other areas of concern from the ‘Re-opening With Confidence’ meetings. Janet and Murray to liaise on this after the meetings.

4.RESTART

Re-opening with Confidence - #cairngormstogether community meetings 01/03/21

Three separate meetings are planned, for community councils, local councillors and an open meeting for all interested residents. It was noted that there are a lot of business owners registered for the open meeting.

National visitor management groups

- Communications subgroups have been feeding information on the various themes together, with a campaign due to be in place by 1^st April, including TV advertising.  The enforcement group is also meeting shortly.

Other relevant recent or upcoming meetings

-          Cairngorms Local Outdoor Access Forum met last week and agreed slightly stronger messaging, particularly around fires. -          3^rd March: National Parks UK Comms campaign meeting. -          8^th March: FLS Glenmore community meeting -          10^th March: CNP ‘Managing for Visitors’ group meetings restart.  Ranger service meetings also planned over the next couple of weeks. -          12^th March: CNPA board meeting, including Green Recovery Fund, permanent ranger service & capital funding. -          19^th March: Stakeholder group meeting with Fergus Ewing

Messaging for Easter and re-opening.

The current ‘Stay at Home’ restriction is due to be lifted on Easter Monday (5^th April) and that is expected to lead to increased number of local visitors.  Even with movement restricted to local authority level, there are a potential 850,000 legal visitors. There was a discussion about better communicating alternative locations, such as the community path networks.  This could be done through, for example, local media.  However it was acknowledged that the majority of visitors will still want to visit honeypot sites and provision of adequate facilities at these key locations was the priority. A CNPA / CBP meeting has been set-up for 9^th March to discuss a communications plan in more detail.  Other DMOs are welcome to join as well if they wish.

5.RECOVER

Nothing to discuss

6.Any Other Updates

Nothing raised.

Date of next meeting

Monday 15^th March 2021 @ 11am

Call-ins 

1st March, 2021