Resort urged to reap rewards from nature tourism industry

The Great Outdoors event is being held at Sewerby Hall on Wednesday, October 12, and is aimed at companies involved in the visitor economy in Bridlington and the Yorkshire Wolds.

The event, which is part of Wolds Business Week, will feature exhibitions and presentations from organisations including Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Bridlington Tourism Association, Bridlington Spa, the Local Food Network project and East Riding Council business services.

Bridlington Renaissance programme manager Liz Philpot said many firms in the Wolds were already focusing on potential opportunities but more could be done to make Bridlington a centre for country breaks.

She said: “This is aimed at trying to get the Bridlington town centre tourist businesses find out more about what’s on their doorstep.

“A lot of accommodation providers in Bridlington are only a short walk or cycle ride away from these fantastic opportunities. There’s a whole new market of visitors out there who can come into Bridlington and use it as a base to access all these things that the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB have been working so hard to promote.

“A lot of rural tourism businesses have picked this up; we want to give the town centre businesses the opportunity to get similarly involved.”

She added: “I think it’s hugely important, because we’ve got the potential for new visitors coming to the area and also it expands the season because nature happens all year round. Cyclists and walkers are not too bothered about the weather if they are kitted out for it.”

Nature tourism is one of the fastest growing markets in the visitor economy and was estimated last year to be growing globally by 20 per cent a year.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a year into a project aimed at maximising the potential of nature tourism in East Yorkshire, and a report last year by the International Centre for Responsible Tourism said that investment in infrastructure could see income treble.

To that end the trust is building a new visitor centre in Flamborough, while last week the RSPB was given a £33,000 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop its plans to build a national seabird visitor centre at the charity’s Bempton Cliffs nature reserve near Bridlington.

The nature tourism manager at the trust, Martin Batt, said: “The project has been running for just over a year and what that’s revealed is we can probably treble the tourism income from wildlife from about £10m to £30m.

“We are investing in new facilities, new visitor centres. We are building a Living Sea centre at South Landing (in Flamborough), the RSPB is working on a national seabird centre and other investment is planned by Yorkshire Water.

“We are promoting the attractions for visitors and getting our heads together about marketing more jointly and we’ll be launching a new website for nature tourism over the winter time.

“We have recently done familiarisation tours for tourism businesses so they become more aware of just how important and attractive the wildlife is in East Yorkshire. We are finding that’s very helpful because people are now starting to put wildlife on their websites and visitors are aware there’s lots to see here.”

The Cabinet member for leisure and tourism at East Riding Council, Jane Evison, added: “I see the educational side of tourism as something that needs developing. It’s an area that holds a lot of interest for people.”

Wolds Business Week is being held at a range of venues from Monday, October 10, to Friday, October 14, culminating in a business awards dinner at Bridlington Spa.

For more details, call Bridlington Renaissance on 01482 391708.