Cairngorms National Park looks to way ahead for reopening
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THE Cairngorms National Park is preparing to welcome back visitors safely after the Scottish Government set a target date of July 15 to restart tourism.
The Cairngorms Business Partnership (CBP) and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) have been working for weeks with businesses, partners and stakeholders on the way ahead.
Mark Tate, chief executive of the CBP, said: "Visitors are an essential part of our life in the Cairngorms – we have missed them.
"The impact on businesses, employees and communities of not having them here has been devastating. It will take time to recover and some businesses will be unable to do so.
"Planning to welcome visitors back has been at the centre of our thinking for over two months now and from the very start it has been clear to us and our members that when we do so, we need to do it in a way that gives confidence to our communities, our employees and our visitors."
Mr Tate added: "We recently conducted a visitor survey and the response was overwhelming. We have an incredibly loyal and trusting visitor base who want to come back, they want to protect the communities that are an essential part of their experience and they want to help businesses.
"They share our fears about people respecting social distancing and staying safe and they have fears that their favourite experiences simply won’t exist because businesses here have been so badly hit."
The framework to emerge from lockdown, under the banner #CairngormsTogether, is based on four key principles: know the guidelines, plan ahead, be flexible and be kind.
Grant Moir, CNPA chief executive, said: "Over the past difficult months the response of communities in the Cairngorms has been truly humbling, from delivering food and essentials for those shielding to organising litter picks to keep the place we all love looking as special as ever.
"Alongside working with the CBP we are working, through our visitor management group, with public and private sector partners to help them get essential facilities such as car parking, litter collection and toilets up and running as soon as possible.
"We have also employed seven seasonal rangers to support existing ranger services who will be on the ground ensuring that people have the right information, based around the four communication principles, to stay safe and do the right thing."
Janet Hunter, chairwoman of the Cairngorms Tourism Emergency Response Group, said: "Many of the visitors are likely to be coming to the Cairngorms National Park for the first time and so we are working hard to promote both responsible behaviour and responsible access via the Outdoor Access Code."
CNPA has a COVID information page here and CBP is developing websites that will allow visitors to see at a glance what facilities, attractions, restaurants, bars and cafes are open and what restrictions might be in place.
