AONB Annual Forum – Sustainable Tourism and Business Engagement

Every year the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB host a forum and this year’s theme was Sustainable Tourism and Business Engagement.

When planning such an event there was only one place to go – straight to the businesses themselves, in particular the Clwydian Range Tourism Group, Clwydian Range Food and Drink and the Llangollen and Dee Valley Good Grub Club. Having been involved with the establishment of each group they were naturally the go to businesses of choice.

We partnered up with the tourism group who hosted their autumn meeting between 3-5pm before an hour of showcasing the delicious local food producers. Guest speakers included;

• Julie Masters and Jane Clough introduced us to Stay, Eat and Do a new exciting opportunity for businesses in the area to form marketing clusters.
• Peter McDermott, Denbighshire's Tourism Manager who have us an update on the Denbighshire Tourism Strategy.
• Anna Bowen from Development Bank Wales on the financial opportunities for businesses.
• Sarah Jones, Cadwyn Clwyd regarding the innovative North East Wales Digital Trails project available in many communities.

A couple of highlights from the evening included;

• Cillian Murphy from Loop Head Tourism Association who really enthused the crowd with quotes about Sustainable Tourism such as “Tourism itself is not the goal, it is just a tool we can use to build a sustainable community” and “Tourism needs to be measured not by visitor numbers, but by its efficacy in creating prosperity, employment, a healthy environment and benefits to the destination” something extremely relevant for our next guest speakers;
• Graham Randles and Rebecca Armstrong from New Economics Foundation who have been commissioned by the AONB to undertake research of the value of some of our honeypot sites such as Moel Famau Country Park and the Horseshoe Falls (the findings will be included in the next issue of County Voice) not only in economic terms but also in health and well-being terms.

The event attracted over 80 people and really drew attention to Sustainable Tourism in the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley.

A huge thank you to all who were involved in such a great event – da iawn!

The event was kindly supported through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government and administered by Cadwyn Clwyd.