Broads Tourism Strategy
The Broads is a protected wetland as well as being the UK’s premier destination for inland boating holidays. It has the status of a national park. The Tourism Company was commissioned by The Broads Authority to prepare a tourism strategy for this special area. This required a high level of sensitivity, bringing together the interests of a traditional boat hiring sector, which had been suffering from a declining market, and a strong environmental lobby. Our approach was to show how all stakeholders could benefit from actions which would strengthen the image and reality of the Broads as a high quality environment, with excellent, well managed access on the land as well as on the water.
The work entailed a detailed survey of tourism businesses. We also commissioned an extensive face-to-face visitor survey based on 1000 interviews held in different locations across the Broads and designed to capture both day and staying visitors, including boat users and land based visitors. The resulting action plan was taken on board by the relatively new Broads Tourism Forum, a partnership body of private and public sector interests, and was also the basis for a successful bid for recognition of the Broads under the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas.
