Welcome to the Kent Downs National Landscape Business Resources
Here you will find useful support and insight materials to help your business develop and improve your sustainable tourism offer. Whether you wish to tap into the increasing trend of ‘Experiential Tourism’, to improve your welcome for walking and cycling visitors or to find out more about being sustainable, we have help available for you.
Many of these resources have been developed through the European INTERREG funded EXPERIENCE project, and you will also find links to further project resources based on the latest trends and research in sustainable tourism, together with case studies and practical guidance on how you can use them for your own business development.
Creating an Experience
We’re looking for new Experiences that celebrate the landscape and heritage of the Kent Downs National Landscape.
If you have a great idea for an Experience but need some help setting it up, we hope you’ll find these resources useful.
For any more support, contact mail@kentdowns.org.uk
Establishing a Sense of Place
The development of these three new and complementary thematic training resources is a key element of local business engagement as part of the Experience project. They are designed to support local SMEs, farmers and landowners to expand and diversify to meet the needs of visitors to provide incremental earning opportunities whilst respecting and promoting the Kent Downs Landscape Promise and the protected landscape of the North Downs Way.
About the EXPERIENCE Project
EXPERIENCE is a €23.3 million project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (€16.1 million ERDF) through Interreg VA France (Channel) England Programme 2014-2020 Interreg VA France (Channel) England Programme 2014-2020.
It aims to bring 20m visitors to project partner regions in the UK and France including Kent over the next few years by reinventing the way the economy, environment, communities, and brands interact – focusing on sustainable, low-impact tourism activities to secure the future resilience of our natural and cultural assets.
This innovative 4-year project is designed to break the seasonality cycle by simultaneously addressing the five challenges of growing visitor numbers between October and March. The project is achieving this through various activities and initiatives ranging from; research, analysis, business ‘net-walking’, training, workshops, communications, marketing and promotions to consumers, local businesses and travel trade and aims to leave a long-lasting legacy that drives incremental tourism business whilst minimising the environmental impacts of attracting additional visitors.