Lake District Tourism Development - Business Plan Example

Lake District tourism development plan affiliation Department Tourism Planning & Development IntroductionTourism has a great role in both the national park economy as well as the environment. Huge number of tourist’s visits the Lake District national park every year hence it becomes a priority to the Lake District management team to come up with a strategic plan to improve the services rendered as well as spearheads the development of the park into a world-class national park. The plan is mainly in place to create a sustainable tourism in the region and bring development within the national park to boost the number of tourist who visits the park. Tourism Planning & Development 1. What is the vision for tourism outlined in your plan? In the plan, the vision of Lake District national park in the year 2030 shall be; "to be an inspirational example of sustainable development in action". In any national park, the partners and stakeholders understand how they should work together towards meeting the statutory purposes. Lake District is now in the forefront in bringing people and agendas to the same table in developing new vision for a national park until 2030. The partnership includes that every stakeholder in the Lake District national park adopts the vision of the park (Eckton 2003, pp.307–317). It is the vision that the partnership between the partners and all stakeholders has proposed as a mechanism that can be used in bringing every person together in achieving the purposes of the Lake District national park. The vision that was put forth for the park will help in guiding the plan review management of the park. The tourism vision for the Lake District will ensure that the park will be a place where its economic prosperity. It will also help increase visitor experience, that is of world class and the communities that is vibrant come together as one to offer sustainability to its spectacular landscape of Lake District Park, its culture as well as the wildlife found in the park. The vision will ensure that the businesses that will be in the park since Lake District park values the opportunities as well as the quality of opportunities, lifestyle and the environment the park offers (Inskeep 2007, pp.118–135). The parks vision will help the Lake District grow to world destination place. The vision statement will be used as guidance by the management to ensure that everything goes on as indicated to achieve the objectives by the year 2030. The vision will be a vital tool in ensuring that the image of the park rises to the standards of world class to attract the community members and propagate a chain of prosperous economy. 2. How does the vision translate into a set of aims and objectives? From the vision, the Lake District Park will derive its objectives. The strategic objectives of the park outline ways through which the Lake District is going to use to ensure that the vision is delivered by the stipulated duration of time. The vision that has been put forth is directly translating through expressing the ambitions of Lake District national park and its partnerships. The objectives of the strategies of the community extend outside the park as well as recognizing the designed aims of the park. Every objective aims to accomplish the vision and is, therefore, derived from it. The objectives are simple and provide easy tasks to be accomplished towards the realization of the parks vision (Spencer 2010, pp.684–690). The formulated objectives and aims of the park are all aiming at answering the vision statement. In this case, the vision statement acts as the targeting point, and all the objectives are converging towards achieving the vision. In this case, the vision statement acts as the main objective of the Lake District national park. From it, small objectives that are specific to achieving the course are formulated. All the main areas of the vision are addressed effectively by the specific objectives to ensure that everything is in place, and chances of achieving the vision are increased (Schnaiberg et al. 2002, pp.24–34). 3. Aim and supplementary resources The aims of the park are in line with the supplementary resources in the area. During the formulation of the aims of the park, the stakeholders and partners to the park first ensured that all the resources that are primary and supplementary are identified in the region. First, the park cannot operate on its own. There are people living around it in the local vibrant communities around, the landscape of the region that is spectacular, and the businesses that are located in the national park all contribute and belong to the list of resources. The aims of the park are all acknowledging the fact that the park cannot run on its own without incorporating all these resources in the realization of the vision (Coxon 2002, pp.16–20). The area is unique, from the landscape to a great culture. The aims are ensuring that there are developments in the region that will help enhancing the environment. In addition to this, the unique landscape protecting the biodiversity, the culture and the heritage in addition to any other special qualities that can be found in the Lake District park region and surrounding. The aims are also acknowledging the fact that lake district region possess variety of resources that can make the park smoothly accommodate any change, which the stakeholders and partners are willing to impose, to contribute towards achieving the vision statement of lake district (Eckton 2003, pp.307–317). 4. Market research was undertaken prior Prior to the compilation of the first draft, research was done on the popularity of the national park among the local population and a countrywide population. This was vital so that the committee could understand areas of focus and improvement. Without conducting market research, the objectives and the vision being formulated cannot specific to the main things that are intended. Market research is, therefore, the key thing in ensuring that the Lake District s in the right tracks so far towards meetings its previous objectives. This also helps in analyzing and evaluating the objectives whether they were met or they need changes in order to make them easily attainable (Allen et al. 2012, pp.261–280). From the market research, the reports indicated that the popularity of the national park was not well known and that the park underutilizes the available resources around its vicinity to its advantage. The park did less to ensure that it attracted the neighboring vibrant community. The Lake District national park did not focus in attracting business opportunities around the park as well as it underutilized its unique landscape to its favor. The research helped in pinpointing areas where the park has to put much of its resources to take advantage and bring changes. The information from the market research was also important in helping the stakeholders and partners formulate the objectives as well as the vision of the park that will be guiding the activities of the Lake District until the year 2030. 5. How the plan became subject to public consultation Since a huge number of people live within the Lake District park boundaries, their consultation was important before arriving at any decision that would have affected them directly. The people who are in and outside the park are affected by the decision of anything that is implemented in the park. The stakeholders and partners understand that the public consultation is vital in any case the project will be sustainable in the park as well as peaceful coexistence between the people and the park (Eckton 2003, pp.307–317). The involvement of the public in making decision gives them a chance to participate directly to the things that will affect them if implemented. If the community were not given an opportunity to be involved or be consulted on the implementation of new strategies in the park, they would have felt to be discriminated from the policies and activities that affect their lives in the region. This would lead to the development of chaos between the surrounding communities and the management of the park. If the local community feels like they are being undermined the programs of the park may not continue as planned since the communities will always be thwarting every single plan laid to be implemented. Therefore, an understanding between the park management and the local communities is vital through consultation so that both p[arties feel accepted and agree on the proposed plans (Bennion et al. 2000, pp.394–412). 6. Product marketing The marketing of the Lake District Park is vital for its sustainability and attraction of new visitors in the park. Product marketing is important in order to popularize the park. The park is aiming at being an excellent park that matches world class parks hence a lot of marketing and promotion need to be done to ensure that the park attracts people from all corners of the world. In marketing of the Lake District national park, emphasis must be put on television advertisement showing how the beauty of the park to the viewers. People are mostly attracted to what they can see, and in this case marketing the park through television advert will be vital to popularizing the park (Coxon 2002, pp.16–20). In addition to the television advert, social media advertisement is another powerful method of marketing in modern times. Several people use social media networks in every minute, and this is a good platform for Lake District national park to sow its worth. Social media are a potential site for marketing the park using both videos and pictures at a relatively lower costs compared to the television advertisement. The park management team should also consider offering promotional activities and viewing time to attract more people to come to the park. Promotion is a powerful way if attraction and should be employed. This will ensure many people who will be targeted come and visit the park and its scenery. This ensures further dissemination of information about the park in the societies thus attracting even more people (Sharpley & Jepson 2011a, pp.52–71). 7. Human resource issues In the plan, Farming and forestry have been identified as a major human resource issues. The park has a unique landscape that has been farmed, and one of the special qualities of Lake District national park is the concentration of common land. The park employs over two thousand five hundred people as farm employees to help in farming. The problem is that the income generated from the farm is low. Due to this, several people are refusing to be employed in the farms since they cannot earn enough in a day. The tourism development plan is aiming at addressing this problem by converting the land owning system to higher or entry-level stewardship scheme’s to attract and encourage farmers to make use of the land for agricultural purposes (Hiltunen 2007, pp.243–265). Another issue dealing with human resource is the high number of residents who are claiming allowances been given in the national park is lower when compared with that given in the regional and national averages. With such dissatisfaction among the residents, several implementation strategies will be halted in case of any conflict that arises between the locals and the park management team. The tourism development plan of the Lake District national park, indicates that the park authority should approve over ninety percent of planning application and satisfaction as well as the payment of allowances, which matches what others are being paid (Macan 2009, pp.1–23). 8. Finance The park collects revenues from its collection from those people who come to visit it. Despite this collection, the park will still need supplementation of the budget by the government. The Lake District Park being a national park will receive funding from the government through ministry of tourism. This will boost the financial status of the park to help continue with its development projects in the park. The project is going to cost the park a lot of money that it cannot support itself in implementing everything. Because of this, the government to see it growing towards its vision will support the park. Without the support from an external source, whatever the park collects as revenue is not enough to spearhead the changes in the park towards transforming it into a world-class standard (Eagles 2002, pp.132–153). 9. Implementing the plan The park management board together with the stakeholders and the local communities will foresee the implementation of the project. The project implementation is not going to take place at once. The project has been spread over a certain period where every objective is expected to be achieved at some point I time. The involvement of community in the implementation process helps them be part of the project and assume ownership of the changes that are to be effected in the park. Without this strategy, the community will feel that the project is not theirs, and they do not own it. They will also feel that the government and the park management are forcing the project in them. To allow a smooth transition the community is put at the upper hand when implementing the project plans (Sharpley & Jepson 2011b, pp.52–71). 10. Monitoring and evaluation For the adoption of the project according to the tourism development plan to be successful, it must be evaluated and monitored at several stages of its development. The tourism development plan has commissioned and independent habitats regulations assessment and sustainability appraisal. At every stage of development, the development stages will be subject to sustainability appraisal (Nyaupane & Poudel 2011, pp.1344–1366). This will help the project in meeting all the requirements of the strategic assessment of the environment and the surrounding environment. The main purpose is to determine the proposals; policies provide sustainability for development, and whether the project development is causing any serious problem on the interest of the environment that will need it to be stopped. Apart from the project, human resource activities must also be evaluated. In any case, the resources that are used in developing the changes must be put on the check to avoid any chance of being embezzled by the people entrusted with them (Duffy 2010, pp.90–91). Conclusion Adopting a sustainable plan is the only way for the Lake District national park to be able to attract huge number of tourists. The plans will be influential in creating a n understanding between the national park management team and the people living around the park to minimize human animal conflicts. With the new plan in place, lake district national park will be looking into several ways of bringing in many private sector business within the park and recognize the value of sustainability and what green measures will be having for their business to flourish within the Lake District national park. References Allen, J., Sheate, W.R. & Diaz-Chavez, R., 2012. Community-based renewable energy in the Lake District National Park – local drivers, enablers, barriers and solutions. Local Environment, 17, pp.261–280. Bennion, H., Monteith, D. & Appleby, P., 2000. Temporal and geographical variation in lake trophic status in the English Lake District: Evidence from (sub)fossil diatoms and aquatic macrophytes. Freshwater Biology, 45, pp.394–412. Coxon, C., 2002. Access all areas - Lake District National Park in Focus. Countryside Recreation, 10, pp.16–20. Duffy, R., 2010. Responsible tourism: critical issues for conservation and development. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 2, pp.90–91. Eagles, P.F.J., 2002. Trends in Park Tourism: Economics, Finance and Management. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 10, pp.132–153. Eckton, G.D.C., 2003. Road-user charging and the Lake District National Park. Journal of Transport Geography, 11, pp.307–317. Hiltunen, M.J., 2007. Environmental Impacts of Rural Second Home Tourism – Case Lake District in Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 7, pp.243–265. Inskeep, E., 2007. Environmental planning for tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 14, pp.118–135. Macan, T.T., 2009. Corixidae (Hemiptera) of an evolved Lake in the English lake District. Hydrobiologia, 2, pp.1–23. Nyaupane, G.P. & Poudel, S., 2011. Linkages among biodiversity, livelihood, and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, pp.1344–1366. Schnaiberg, J. et al., 2002. Explaining human settlement patterns in a recreational lake district: Vilas County, Wisconsin, USA. Environmental Management, 30, pp.24–34. Sharpley, R. & Jepson, D., 2011a. Rural tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 38, pp.52–71. Sharpley, R. & Jepson, D., 2011b. Rural tourism A spiritual experience? Annals of Tourism Research, 38, pp.52–71. Spencer, D.M., 2010. Facilitating public participation in tourism planning on American Indian reservations: A case study involving the Nominal Group Technique. Tourism Management, 31, pp.684–690.  Read More