Broads Authority working with local industry to boost tourism
The Broads Authority will do all it can to help Broads businesses provide a tourism experience fit for the 21st century and pinpoint new and emerging niche markets.
That was the key message from Broads Authority Chair Professor Kerry Turner at a seminar on promoting sustainable tourism for the Broads at Schroders London Boat Show.
He told 50 guests representing a variety of Broads businesses that the Broads was struggling with a perception problem left over from the 1960s of overcrowding and lager louts on waterborne pub crawls.
“The experience you get on the Broads today is totally different,” he said. “The Broads Authority believes that an effective strategy should help to safeguard the existing business successes while pinpointing new and emerging niche marketing opportunities. These opportunities will be linked to the quality of the environmental experience offered by the Broads and will be high value/lower volume ventures." “The Broads Authority is an enabling mechanism and it will do all in its power to maintain and enhance the environmental assets which underpin the tourist economy. The Authority’s increased government funding will help in the task, of improving the waterways, broads and surrounding landscapes. We need an integrated approach based on mutual trust and joint ownership of the problems and possible solutions to carry these issues forward.”
Professor Turner said that the £1.5 million extra National Park funding for the Broads over the next three years was in recognition of the hard work that the Chief Executive, Dr John Packman, the members and staff had put in.
Four other speakers gave quick fire presentations on ways to promote the Broads for sustainable holidays. Ken Gaylard, former chief executive of Hoseason’s and the new chairman of the Broads Hire Boat Federation spoke about holiday boating. Project leader Peter Howe outlined Norfolk and Suffolk Boatbuilders Association’s exciting project to create an eco-boat for the Broads while Rosa Delassandro from Greenwich Council detailed what it means to be a Beacon Council.
Chairman of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), Richard Ellis, nephew of Norfolk naturalist Ted Ellis, emphasised that tourism in the Broads, which attracts 2.3 million visitors a year, must be a balance between the economic, environmental and social.
During the boat show North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb launched a new marketing brochure for the Broads on behalf of the newly formed Broads Tourism Forum. The brochure promotes the range of activities visitors will find on the Broads, eating places, villages and towns. It includes a comprehensive list of contact details covering all aspects of a visit to the Broads, including international travel, boating, accommodation, special places to visit and tourist information centres. The brochures will be distributed at exhibitions in the UK and overseas and information centres throughout Britain.
On the Broads Authority’s stand, which formed part of the Inland Waterways attraction, hundreds of people filled in questionnaires about their views of the Broads which will be used to market the area. A few were lucky enough to win luxury holidays, short breaks and day trips in a prize draw given by 11 Broads tourism businesses.
19/01/2005
