Parrett Trail

Objective

The world-wide growth in demand for environmentally stimulated tourism cannot be satisfied by existing well known tourist locations. The River Parett Trail is a demonstration project that will be given a new methodology for the management of tourism within an environmentally fragile area in such a way as to minimise environmental impact and create a sustainable path to economic development within the rural communities alongside the River Parrett.

The Parrett Trail will:
- Provide a directly transferable development and marketing method that could be applied to any coherent, geographic area suffering economic problems, having conservation imperatives and providing touristic opportunities.
- Use visual art in the form of sculpture to stimulate appreciation and understanding of the uniqueness of the area and the problems encountered in its economic and environmental survival.
- Provide a mechanism for transferring latent demand for green tourism within an environmentally sensitive area away from the motor car to transport by foot.
- Use mechanisms of community participation and outreach to stimulate awareness amongst host communities of the qualities of their own environment, and its value as an economic resource.
- Include all bodies with an interest along the geographic corridor: the farming community, agricultural college, local authorities, the tourism industry, and the arts community.
- Heighten awareness of the environmental problems and opportunities caused by tourism in a fragile area.
- Generate 2.1 million pounds sterling of expenditure along the route, and stimulate opportunities for enterprise.
- Give a fresh understanding and a new positivism for a geographic area that is not recognised by administrative boundaries, but nevertheless, has its own unique set of problems and opportunities.
- Foster a partnership between key players which hitherto has never existed who have never worked together.

Programme(s)

ENV-LIFE 1 - Regulation (EEC) establishing a financial instrument for the environment (LIFE), 1992-1995

Topic(s)

A152 - Promotion of sustainable tourism and the implementation of new concepts which respect the natural environment

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

DEM - Demonstration contracts

Coordinator

South Somerset District Council

EU contribution

No data

Address

Brympton Way
BA20 2HT Yeovil
United Kingdom

Total cost