Definition of Sustainable Tourism
Comparative Evaluation of the Sustainable Tourism Strategy for Stonehenge and Cornwall
The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as the tourism that takes into account its current and future social, economic and environmental impacts that addresses the needs of the industry, the visitors, host communities and the environment. Sustainable tourism has the capability of maintaining high level of tourism satisfaction and subsequently ensures a significant experience to the tourists, increasing their awareness related to issues associated with sustainability and promoting practices of sustainable tourism amongst them (Edgell, 2016).
For meeting the requirements of sustainable tourism in Stonehenge, it has adopted a strategy where it addresses a number of sustainability problems of the current facilities. It aims to protect and enhance the quality of the historic environment and enhancing the quality of the experience of the visitors. For improving the health of the visitors, it makes sure that healthy food it provided to them in the cafes along with some nutritional information (Appendices 1). Visitors are provided hygiene, health and first aid products in an easily accessible manner in order to maintain the sustainability of the tourism. Moreover, the English Heritage exists to take care of the historic environment. It has entered into partnership with the National Trust which is the owner of the majority of the surrounding land which can assist Stonehenge in its purpose of restoring the prehistoric character and biodiversity of the local flora. Furthermore, English Heritage will directly run the café in the Visitor Centre which in turn will allow greater control over the policy related to purchasing.
Signing the convention with the UNESCO World Heritage Sites is also one of the strategies adopted by Stonehenge for the promotion of sustainable tourism. It successfully manages public areas and tourism at Stonehenge with the help of an integrated monitoring programme. Such programme can make effective identification of the area where visitor pressure may be damaging ecology, archaeology or the landscape and assists in tackling the problem through a successful programme of actions (Stonehenge and Avebury, 2015).
As far as Cornwall is concerned, it gives priority to significantly increasing sustainability tourism by utilizing “VERB” principles for underpinning major decisions and future policies such as planning. Such principles are-
Visitors- delighted and satisfied customers who act as ambassadors and advocates for assisting in increasing and repeating the customers.
Environment- they aim at creating a protected and enhanced environment that contributes to assist towards the global issues such as carbon.
Stonehenge’s Sustainable Tourism Strategy
Residents- they aim at developing understanding, welcoming and accepting nature of residents.
Business- they aim at the profitability, competitiveness and ability of the business to invest in their future growth and development at the time of showing active engagement and participation in the development and wider management of tourism in the respective area of the business and in Cornwall as a whole (Waligo, Clarke & Hawkins, 2015).
Cornwall believes that the delivery of sustainable tourism is possible only by way of operative joint planning and provision of destination management which includes measurement of tourism and its related impacts, steering and management of its development, negating/ minimization of the adverse impacts of tourism and the maximization of the progressive impacts of the tourism (Visit Cornwall, 2014).
The comparative evaluation of the sustainable tourism strategies of Stonehenge and Cornwall provides that there is some difference in the strategies of these heritage attraction and destination. Stonehenge aims to target sustainable tourism by way of adopting the strategies required by World Heritage Site. It has also established partnerships and has developed positioning, branding, promotion and marketing for improving the tourism. On the other hand, Cornwall takes into account every aspect of the society to underpin major decisions and future policies (Gomez & Metuge, 2016). The difference in the strategies for sustain able tourism is due to the difference in destination. Cornwall is a country and this is the reason behind that it requires to take into consideration every aspect of the society. It is having a number of tourist attraction for which it is required to perform proper planning for creating a delightful experience for the visitors that they remember for lifetime. While Stonehenge is itself a tourist attraction, therefore, the strategies are particularly concerned regarding the protection and enhancement of the historic environment and protecting the overall health of the visitors by providing them quality food, air and water (Smith, 2015).
Comparative Analysis of the Strategies and Methods currently used for managing the Impacts of Tourism on Stonehenge and Cornwall
Tourism Planning strategies
The tourism planning strategy adopted in Stonehenge involves destination management and related planning, developmental plan and tourism strategies, marketing strategies, experience development, etc. The destination management organization is responsible for the marketing of Stonehenge as a tourist destination by partnership with Visit Wiltshire. Further it has developed a plan which aims at the Sustainable Tourism Strategy in collaboration with World Heritage Site. It further includes parking and traffic management such that the community residing in that area is not impacted due to the tourism of the spot. It further involves conducting archeological research and managing tourism impact on the environment, social and economic conditions (Hall & Lew, 2009).
Cornwall’s Sustainable Tourism Strategy
On the contrary, the tourism planning strategy of Cornwall involves the formulation of a Tourism Developmental Plan. This plan ensures the quality of the environment offered by the tourist attractions of the destination. Additional facilities are provided in the holiday parks for the purpose of offering some changes in the quality of service and accommodation (Sharpley & Telfer, 2015). It has also converted a number of hotels as destination hotels from mere places to sleep. Such hotels now aim to provide world- class facilities and have completely overturned the reputation of Cornwall for providing poor quality food with now having strongest reputation for famous chefs and restaurants. It uses its culture while planning tourism for the destination (Mawby, Boakye & Jones, 2015).
Marketing Strategies
The marketing strategies of Stonehenge and Cornwall aims at encouraging the visitors for staying for a longer time at these places so that they can explore the wider landscape of World Heritage Site. The marketing strategy of Stonehenge has increased the number of visitors to this iconic site. It has implemented effective marketing programs that communicate the attributes of the destination with the defined targets. It undertakes digital, website and social media marketing, consumer marketing, publications, collateral, travel trade, etc. The target market is divided into experience seekers, families, etc. (Medlik, 2016)
Accordingly, Stonehenge and Cornwall undertakes brand positioning by covering all the sectors of the industry through covering an accommodation study, destination management plan and industry training program. The tourism department of Wiltshire highlights the number of at organizations, museums and heritage for the marketing of the destination. Media, newspapers and websites are the sources used for undertaking the integrated marketing programmes (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2016).
Digital marketing is used by Cornwall along with an award winning destination website and social media activities. Potential visitors are targeted by using media and PR relations and also through providing sponsorships for television and films production. Its art and heritage are the main point of attraction for the tourists and therefore these are used as the key for expansion of the tourism industry.
The use of Technology
The tourism department knows that without promoting the destination, it will lose its charm among the inbound and outbound tourists of the country. For this purpose, the tourism department of UK has decided to implement effective marketing strategies so that it can have wonderful impact on the number of tourists and the increased revenue for the country. For this purpose they use different factors which can bring effective change in the promotion of the destination (Cheer & Lew, 2017).
Comparative Evaluation of the Strategies
Internet is one such platform which is used by millions of population across the world. Here, people can share their thoughts, ideas, plans and communicate even when they are sitting in entirely different corners of the world. Both the destinations, Stonehenge and Cornwall have used internet to create their websites which is updated from time to time (Appendences 2). The purpose of these websites is to inform the tourists about the timings, history, season to visit and other information so that it could be easy and manageable for the tourists to plan. The digital content helps both the destinations to reach a new set of target customers and position themselves well among the tourists.
Stonehenge have used video marketing strategies to make optimum use of the internet marketing. It is also because many visitors have switched to online video marketing. Viral videos of the destination can enhance its brand value and increases the traffic at Stonehenge. On the other hand, Cornwall makes most of the promotion through event promotion techniques. It hosts a range of events in order to attract tourists. It also uses media so that most of the tourists get to know about these events and influence their choice of destination. They also update details about their upcoming events on their websites and like this they promote themselves (Bailey, 2016).
Education
Education is one of the areas which promotes tourism at a face pace. It is also called ‘Educational tourism’. There are many tourists who travel to gain learning and to have self-improvement. Stonehenge is the English heritage destination which attracts various educational institutions for trips and to explore. It also develops educational films in order to provide knowledge to the visitors. The destination provides facilities for learning groups like education rooms, refreshments and food, parking facilities, exploring activities and facilities and more. Similarly, Cornwall also promotes itself as a learning centre and have many schools and colleges where it provides different courses to attract learners from across the world to come, learn and experience (Coccossis, 2016).
Collaboration and Partnerships
Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project (CoaST) is in partnership with Cornwall Wildlife Trust for ensuring the effective delivery of economic, social and environmental benefits by the tourism. Further, CoaST works with almost everyone ranging from photographers to cake makers, recycling collectors to campsites, hotels, community groups, universities, colleges, designers, beach cafes and beer brewers for the purpose of ensuring the delivery of a number of benefits by tourism and fantastic holiday for very visitor. CoaST recognizes that the tourism of Cornwall places heavy reliance on its principle assets i.e. the natural environment. Its partner Cornwall Wildlife Trust also endeavors this this asset for its protection. In future, Cornwall Council is expected to collaborate with the private sector for the purpose of taking a strategic and strong leadership role in demonstrating Cornwall’s future tourism strategy (Dykes & Walmsley, 2015).
Tourism Planning Strategies
On the contrary, Stonehenge has started working with the key partners such as the North Wessex Downs AONB, Visit Wiltshire and the Wiltshire and Swindon Local Economic Partnership (LEP), English Heritage, the national Trust, Avesbury Parish Council and Amesbury Town Council. It also collaborates with the number of other attractions within the region rather than competing with them (Mason, 2015).
Therefore, the collaborations and partnerships differ from destination to destination as the requirement for the management of tourism impact is different at different destinations. Cornwall is a tourist destination and therefore has established CoaST for managing the impact throughout the country with the help of collaborating with almost every entity of the country while Stonehenge, after being included in the list of World Heritage Site, has entered into partnerships and collaborations as per the recommendations of the Sustainable Tourism Strategy of the World Heritage Site for the promotion of tourism.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that tourism impacts may be diverse, large, growing, differ by gender, difficult to evaluate and manage. Since the tourism industry has diverse and fragmented nature, the management of impacts of tourism should vary from destination to destination. This report focused on Stonehenge and Cornwall as the heritage attraction and destination and helped in concluding that there is a difference in the management of tourism of impacts. The comparative evaluation of sustainable tourism strategy of Stonehenge and Cornwall provides that Stonehenge maintains sustainability through providing quality environment to the visitors in terms of food, water and hygiene while Cornwall takes into consideration every aspect of the society including visitors, residents, businesses and Environment. Moreover, the comparative analysis of the strategies and methods used for managing impacts of tourism on Stonehenge and Cornwall provides that the marketing, tourism planning, technology used, education and collaboration and partnerships are different in accordance with the requirements of the destinations. Since both of the places have been recognized by the World Heritage Site, they have introduced a number of strategies on its recommendation.
It is recommended that certain strategies should be adopted in the future by Stonehenge and Cornwall for the management of tourism impacts which include reduction of litter and waste on the tourist attraction spots by establishing targeted programs. Moreover, specific techniques such as media can be used for targeting the audience.
According to the definition of tourism provided by the World Tourism Organization, tourism consists of the actions of individuals travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for less than one consecutive year for business, leisure and other purposes. The impact of tourism can be environmental, sociocultural and economic (Carr & Walker, 2016).
Marketing Strategies
The development of tourism and the associated activities creates pressure on the physical environment and local communities beyond its carrying capacity along with creating a negative influence on the environment and society. It has been suggested that the tourism impacts may be diverse, large, growing, differ by gender, difficult to evaluate and manage (Wall & Mathieson, 2006). Since the tourism industry has diverse and fragmented nature, the management of impacts of tourism should vary from destination to destination.
This report focuses on the difference in management of impacts of tourism in Stonehenge and Cornwall according to sustainable tourism strategy, tourism planning strategy, marketing strategy, use of technology, education, collaborations and partnerships.
Stonehenge is a primitive monument in Wiltshire, England. It is a world heritage site of more than 2000 hectares and is regarded to be rich in archaeology. It is quite large and contains various structures from the Bronze and Neolithic ages. It is also the site of biggest Chalk grassland reversion projects across the world. It is one of the popular tourist attractions in UK (Boniface, Cooper & Cooper, 2016).
Cornwall is a South West England country in UK. The existence of number of tourist attractions in Cornwall has made it a popular tourist destination. The beaches of golden sand, fishing port on the River Looe and fishing village of Polperro are popular among the tourists. Also, museums, country gardens, cliffs, wooded valleys, surfing and historic and prehistoric sites are other tourist attractions. Porthtowan and Newquay are considered to be popular destinations among surfers (Jenkins, 2016).
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