Hetty Byrne

Visitor Values: Inspiring Change

Visitor Values

• What value do we place on tourism?• We pay for visitor experiences – is

our engagement with the natural environment not an experience?

• Is it time to change and charge? • Or is better to enthuse, encourage,

tell the stories and inspire visitors to get involved?

Farm Scare Attraction

OR....

Farm Lapwing Walk

Pleasure Park

OR....

Bike Park

Historical Entertainment Complex

OR....OR....

Community Heritage Project

Global Coffee Shop

OR....

Community Bluebell Teas

Organised Tree Adventures

OR....

Spontaneous Tree Adventures

Visitor Experiences

• Big wows• Organised• Planned,

with rules• Often money in

the pockets of global/nationalenterprises

• Little wows• Self discovery

& exploration• Spontaneous• Local economy

& local distinctiveness

PAID EXPERIENCES

FREE EXPERIENCES

Valuing our natural environment

• Visitors to the Forest of Bowland AONB consistently state their reasons for visiting the destination are:

Source: Forest of Bowland AONB 2011 visitor survey

A shared value:A Place to Enjoy & Keep

Special

The Foundations

The right mixture to enable

visitor giving

A Valued Landscape: ‘Unspoiled,

hidden gem’

Visitors enjoy the simple pleasures: exploration, self discovery and

‘Sense of Place’

Dedicated volunteers:

keen to deliver community

projects

Committed group of tourism

businesses: working collectively to inspire visitors to have a responsible

holiday

A driving force of passionate individuals:

The AONB Team & Partnership

The active ingredient:The Tourism Business Network

Aggregate blogging Wildlife website involving 20 green

accredited tourism businesses

www.bowlandwildlife.org.uk

The active ingredient: The Tourism Business

Network

Linked business walking routes to encourage car-free holidays

The active ingredient: The Tourism Business

Network

Individual businesses

raising money for specific projects

Thank you!

Email: hetty.byrne@lancashire.gov.uk