Sustainable Leisure Travel
In the North West, Natural England is encouraging visitors to the countryside to travel by more sustainable modes because it can be healthier, more fun and it helps to protect our most valued landscapes.
Events
The presentations below were given at Natural England’s Northern Regions Sustainable Visitor Travel Seminar in November 2008 held at the Red Rooms in Manchester.
Presentations
The lunatics take over the asylum – A case study of an innovative approach to the provision and operation of a leisure bus network in the Yorkshire Dales: (37kb)
- Colin Speakman 25 November 2008
Sustainable transport and visitor spending: (382kb) - Professor Les Lumsdon
Re-framing transport and travel in Cumbria and The Lake District: (1.74mb)
Sustainable Visitor Travel Conference: (640kb) - Pam Warhurst
Sustainable Visitor Travel Conference summary: (122kb)
The event generated a new enthusiasm and a fresh agenda for changing visitor travel behaviour. There was a lively debate in which key influencers from National Parks, Transport Authorities, Development Agencies & Tourism organisations and others developed and exchanged ideas.
Board Member Pam Warhurst set out Natural England’s vision and challenges for the natural environment resulting from the high levels of car based access. Her presentation covered key messages including: ‘More visitors using the alternatives to the car, or using the car less’ and ‘reducing the need to travel – creating natural green space close to where people live’. Delegates were also briefed on the current policy context and evidence base for sustainable visitor travel.
Research
‘What Makes you Move?’ is a Cumbria-focused research project designed to have very practical outputs.
This joint research with Friends of the Lake District and Cumbria Tourism aimed to discover which visitor groups are most willing and able to travel by sustainable modes.
The project investigated:
The travel behaviour and impacts of different visitor groups, and the amount they spend on a visit
The attitudes of different visitor types to car use and their willingness and ability to change how they might travel, at least for some of their journeys
How different types of visitors find information before and during their visit
What marketing messages would influence their travel behaviour
The project has identified:
Four categories of visitors based on combinations of their travel impacts and the amount that they spend
That a small majority of visitors are quite willing to change travel behaviour at least for some journeys, and that some of these are high spending visitors
That “protecting the landscape” is the front-running message, ahead of others such as cost, convenience and CO2 reduction that may influence how they travel
That alternatives to using the car need to be easy to use, integrated and cost-effective
Report and executive summary: (574kb)
