Agenda item

Phil Mulligan, CEO presented the report and reminded Members that the Charter was reworked after the Forum discussion, so the recommendation was to adopt the Charter and to get partners to sign up to it, together with the action plan.

Members asked why the National Parks England report on Regenerative Tourism in UK National Parks was not referenced as that report had a different feel and emphasis to the Tourism Charter.  The CEO reported that the Authority’s’ Tourism Charter had a different emphasis as it was about managing visitor pressure, whereas Regenerative Tourism was based in the concept of tourists actively participating in improving the environment of the place they visit. 

Members asked what the next steps would be? How would we get partners to sign up to it and would we be getting the Parish Councils involved?  The CEO reported that he would be happy to take the Charter to the Parishes to sign up to through the Parishes Forum and to every meeting he attended as the next steps were really important. 

Although the Charter was welcomed by Members which made good points, there was concern around some of the wording and it was considered more work was needed to get the message across to key partners who have just changed political control following the local elections to get their support.  The CEO reported that the Charter was to reach out to as many people as possible as there were those that wanted more tourism within the Park and those who wanted less so it was trying to find a balance to get people engaged and on board, taking into account the National Park purposes which should be the centerpiece of the Charter.

When asked if an update could be brought to a future Authority Meeting, the CEO agreed that this would be done at an appropriate time.

The CEO thanked Members for their feedback and agreed that he could tweak some of the wording but was concerned that this could mean the risk of not passing  the Charter, to then bring it back to Members and delaying getting on with it.

The Chair agreed that tweaking of some of the words could be done to reflect some of the comments that Members had made by way of a second recommendation, to allow for delegation to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Chair of the Authority to agree the document.

The recommendation as set out in the report, subject to an additional recommendation  was moved, seconded, voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

1.     That approval be given to adopt the Tourism Charter, as set out in appendix 1 of the report.

2.     That Authority be delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Chair of the Authority, to review the presentation of the document as agreed.