tourism, landscapes, authenticity and the experience economy. our land

Landscapes as part of Landscapes as part of the tourist experience the tourist experience

Some questions

• What are ‘landscapes’?

• Why are they important for tourism (accommodation owners and tour companies)?

• How can we make landscape part of the tourism experience?

• What is Our Land?

In the European Landscape Convention: “landscape means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors”.

Thus landscape is a meeting ground between natural and cultural influences. It has both a physical and an emotional presencethat reflects how as individuals and collectively we perceive it.

The only place that a landscape can ever exist is in the minds of any/all of us

Landscape is still often understoodas a noun connoting fixity, scenery,an immobile painterly decorum.

I prefer to think of it as dynamic and commotion causing, it sculpts and shapes us not only over the course of our lives but instant by instant.

Landscape is a collective term for thetemperature and pressure of the air,the fall of light and its rebounds, thetextures and surfaces of rock, soil andbuilding, the scents and sounds that makeup the bristling presence of a particularplace at a particular time

This is geology not landscape

Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect the living synthesis of people and place vital to local and national identity

Landscapes, their character and quality, help define the self-image of a region, its sense of place that differentiates it from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives

Wikipedia

Landscape and local identity

Landscape and local identity

• Place builders (destination marketers)

• Reinvest emotionally in places

• Enhance tourist’s (and local people’s) understanding and sense of intimacy, self reflection and feelings to their surroundings...

• Improve the tourist experience

We are the landscape too

All things are engaged in writing their history.... Not a foot steps into the snow, or along the ground, but prints in characters more or less lasting, a map of its march. The ground is all memorandaand signatures; and every object covered with hints. In nature this self registration is incessant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1850

Our Land – the brand name

• We called it Our Land because landscapes are– About how they make us feel– Shaped by us, shaping us– Part of our individual & collective local identity

• And because– We are the landscape too...

Who are the AONB Managers?• IUCN defines categories of Protected Area. AONB’s are Category V

• The focus of management should be on the point of interaction between people and nature. “Safeguarding the integrity of (the) traditional interaction is vital.

• People should be seen as stewards of the landscape. As the occupants of lived-in, working landscapes that are of great value to society as whole, the people living within Category V protected areas should be supported in their role as stewards of the landscape. They are the architects of much that we value in the landscape, and their support is needed to ensure its survival.

• Ideally, local people help to shape and care for the environment with the traditions of the past, but with an eye to the future. In that sense, they may more correctly be described as ‘the managers’ of Protected Landscapes than the professionals who are employed with that formal title

• Good managers will therefore see their role as ‘facilitators’ and negotiators’.

Why are landscapes important in rural UK tourism?

Competitive short break market

Competitive short break market

Source: Visit Britain

UK runs a £13bn tourism deficit

Authenticity and landscapes

• Authenticity – ‘real’ experiences – one of the big trends in travel

• There is a growing polarisation in the holidaymaker mind-set between security and convenience on the one hand and

freedom, independence and authenticity on the other Mintel Oxygen Report July 2011

• What’s the connection between landscapes & authenticity?

• The desire for insight into the back stage life of others, the past or the exotic cultural otherness (MacCannell)

• Benefit: Enhance tourist’s understanding and sense of intimacy, self reflection and feelings to their surroundings..

What is authenticity in tourism?

Recognise any of this?

Landscapes are the back stage life of others, stories of the past and ways of life

Why are ‘experiences’ important?

And what’s the connection to landscapes?

Work is theatre & Every business is a stage

The experience economy

Differentiated

Undifferentiated

Market price Premium

The experience economy in rural tourism

How does rural tourism move intothe experience economy?

Market price Premium

Undifferentiated

Nice breakfast

Somewhere to stay

Differentiated

Rural tourism moves into the experience economy and delivers authenticity – vital for

its marketing success – by putting the landscapes at the heart of the tourist

experience

• Learn about your landscapes

• Co-design your experience around local ways of life, foods, guides, traditions...

• Show them the back stage life, the past or cultural ‘otherness’ (MacCannell)

• Your own stories and experiences in the landscape are a vital part of this (Emerson)

Making landscapes part of the experience

Not only does the pub serve almost everything from the county on its menu, it's also set up a little shop selling produce to support the farmers (winemakers and brewers). All of the pub tables are reclaimed Kentish butcher or baker tables, dried hops and lavender hang up everywhere AND local musicians perform for guests every week

What’s the fit with responsible tourism?

28

Responsible

Responsible tourism

More authentic experiencesthat create better places

to live in and to visit

• Responsible tourism is CO-CREATED...

– In partnership with local communities and Government– Built around their ideas, local knowledge and experience– Built around their home, culture and ways of life– Utilising local guides, local service providers, foods, traditions..– To provide access and support for the conservation cultural and natural heritage..

• Responsible tourism provides more AUTHENTIC experiences

Why is responsible tourism authentic?

In my view its impossible to sustain an authentic experience without designing it in a

responsible/fair way

Responsible tourism

In summary

• We exist in a very competitive short break market

• Authenticity and ‘experiences’ are the customer big trends

• Landscapes are about human/nature relationships = strong links to authenticity

• Make the landscape part of authentic tourism experiences

• Do so in a responsible & sustainable way

Where a visitor makes a conscious (or even second Where a visitor makes a conscious (or even second nature) connection nature) connection between their experience & the landscapebetween their experience & the landscape

The VisionThe Vision

The MissionThe MissionDiscover and share the conservation stories of the Discover and share the conservation stories of the landscapelandscape

1. National promotion to visitors1. National promotion to visitors 22. . Local development of tourism businessesLocal development of tourism businesses 3. Commercial sustainability3. Commercial sustainability 4. Collaboration between public & private sector4. Collaboration between public & private sector

““There is a powerful, There is a powerful, resurgent interest resurgent interest in re-discovering in re-discovering

natural and cultural Britainnatural and cultural Britain””BBC’s Kate HumbleBBC’s Kate Humble

Our Land’s story:

1. 9 Protected Landscapes in SE England gained a fund of £1 million from RDPE administered through DEFRA to promote & develop rural responsible tourism

2. Tendered for private sector partner: responsibletravel.comProject to be self financing beyond funding period (post March 2014)

3. Created a name – Our Land - to compliment theProtected Landscapebrands. Launched web platform Oct 2011

4. Project’s end goal is to represent all UK Protected Landscapes

31/10/12

Over 500 tourism businesses beneficiaries

representing

Over 600 experiences

Places to stay & things to do

8,000Bed nights generated

in first 12 months

¼ millionin visitor database 70% of

businesses

have received at least

one booking enquiry in first 4

months of joining

370,000

unique web

visitors**including

responsibletravel.com

5 networking & experience days held, attended by

80+ business reps

10 events for Our Land businesses planned in

2013

Marketing & development successes Marketing & development successes 20122012

- We’re very close to 100 We’re very close to 100 Kent Downs holidays on Kent Downs holidays on Our Land (98!)Our Land (98!)

-B&Bs, holiday cottages, B&Bs, holiday cottages, bunkhouses, campsites, bunkhouses, campsites, pubs walking tours, pubs walking tours, farmshops, rural skills farmshops, rural skills coursescourses

- 45% of KD businesses 45% of KD businesses have received 5 booking have received 5 booking enquiries or more (and enquiries or more (and many only joined in the many only joined in the last 6 months)last 6 months)

- Promotion of the Kent Promotion of the Kent Downs through Our Downs through Our Land/Visit Kent Land/Visit Kent partnershippartnership

- We’re very close to 100 We’re very close to 100 Kent Downs holidays on Kent Downs holidays on Our Land (98!)Our Land (98!)

-B&Bs, holiday cottages, B&Bs, holiday cottages, bunkhouses, campsites, bunkhouses, campsites, pubs walking tours, pubs walking tours, farmshops, rural skills farmshops, rural skills coursescourses

- 45% of KD businesses 45% of KD businesses have received 5 booking have received 5 booking enquiries or more (and enquiries or more (and many only joined in the many only joined in the last 6 months)last 6 months)

- Promotion of the Kent Promotion of the Kent Downs through Our Downs through Our Land/Visit Kent Land/Visit Kent partnershippartnership

Promoted to

¼ million

1000entrants

IncreasedTraffic & enquiries

Our Land Our Land partnerspartnersOur Land Our Land partnerspartners

In discussion with many In discussion with many more, including:more, including:In discussion with many In discussion with many more, including:more, including:

It’s free!

www.our-land.co.uk/console

Up to 45% increase in bookings for holidays with reviews

Become a ‘Local Expert’ and contribute to the Our Land blog

Our Land weekly ‘Ezine’

increases bookings

(from £50)

justin@responsibletravel.com

kate@our-land.co.uk

www.our-land.co.uk/console