Meeting
Cairngorms Tourism Partnership
25th January, 2021
Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group - Via video-conference
Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group
25th January 2021, 11am.
Present: Murray, Grant, Pete, Heather, Olly Davies, Chris F, Laurie, Alistair, Colin, Geva
Apologies, Mark, Chris T, Rhona
1.Welcome and introductions
Olly Davies, new CNPA head of Communications, introduced himself. He has previously worked for Edinburgh Fringe Society, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. He can be contacted at [email protected] or 01479 870523.
2.RESPOND
Business Support update
Highland and Aberdeenshire Council have been processing both the Strategic Business Framework Fund, and the Top Up Grants. Both should be paid this week to eligible applicants. Aberdeenshire Council have today gone live for applications to the discretionary fund, which will provide a £2k grant to those who can evidence a 30% reduction in income and have not been eligible for other support. It will be on a first come, first served basis. Highland Council who to confirm details of their discretionary scheme shortly.
Key issues from DMOs
VisitAberdeenshire have recently carried out a business survey to measure the impacts of the January lockdown, which is attached. They have a business webinar on the 26th, looking at target markets, and have their board meeting on the afternoon of the 25th.
VisitMoraySpeyside have been concentrating on helping businesses with grant applications. They flagged up that Moray Council’s timeline to administer the new grants is not as fast as Highland and Aberdeenshire Councils.
VisitScotland Overview
Chris T was unable to attend the meeting, as VisitScotland are preparing to launch their new funding schemes. He asked to pass on the information that Scotland Reconnects will be running again on the 27th-29th April, with a view to VisitScotland Expo running again in 2022.
3. RESET
STEAM data 2020
Heather has fed in additional data to the STEAM model to try to capture more accurate information about visitors who this year may not have passed through businesses. Path counter data has been supplied and the Cairngorms Business Barometer has been shared to try to get a picture of business levels post-lockdown. Given the unusual nature of the year though, the data may just need to be accompanied by disclaimers.
4. RESTART
Managing for our visitors – planning for Easter 2021
The CNPA board on Friday agreed the budget for seasonal rangers who will start work in mid-March. There is an opportunity to consider how they, and other ranger services, gather and report visitor data. In addition, CNPA are taking on 6 young people through the Kickstart scheme, 5 of whom will work in the ranger team from June.
Plans are also being finalised for infrastructure investment at key sites where the work can be carried out in this financial year. There is already anecdotal evidence of relatively high visitor numbers at key sites, particularly at weekends in good weather.
Meeting of #cairngormstogether
The businesses involved in last summer’s #cairngormstogether group met last Thursday to look over the previous work with a view to echoing it as this lockdown comes to an end. Businesses were generally very positive about the previous work. There was a feeling, though, that we need to work to keep messages positive eg. talking about ‘managing for visitors’ not ‘visitor management’. It was also agreed that the communities meetings that were part of the project should be repeated. Grant suggested that holding them in March would allow for a fuller update.
5. Recover
6.Any Other Updates
7.Date of next meeting.
There will be a full Cairngorms Tourism Partnership meeting on 1st February, so the next CTERG meeting is scheduled for 15th February, unless there are major changes before then.
