Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Brighton and Lewes Downs area, which the council has branded ‘The Living Coast’, is one of four UNESCO listed biospheres’ in the U.K. and France to get E.U. financial boost to develop an environmentally-friendly way of managing tourism.
The other biospheres taking part are North Devon and the Marais Audomarois and Iles et Mer d’Iroise in France. As part of the three-year, £3.5 million Bio-Cultural Heritage Tourism (BCHT) project, Brighton and Hove City Council will be given a budget of almost £500,000.
It will be using the money to increase the economic value of tourism while reducing its environmental impact, with the help of local partners such as the Royal Pavilion and Museums and Visit Brighton.
The tourism plans include encouraging visitors away from over-visited attractions to other places that have more capacity, supporting tourism businesses to improve their visitor experience and creating new tourism offers that promote the area’s natural heritage.
Rich Howorth, biosphere programme manager within the council’s international and sustainability team, said that over the next three years, the authorities of The Brighton and Lewes Downs Biosphere Reserve will be developing niche tourism experiences to engage visitors to Brighton in bio-cultural heritage tourism.
The Councillor Alan Robins, chairman of the city council’s tourism, development and culture committee, said: “Having a high number of visitors in one location has the potential to damage the environment and affect the quality of life of those who live there.
Tags: Brighton and Lewes Downs, france, UK, UNESCO
