Tourism is seen as turning local culture

into a global commodity for the dilet-

tante globe-trotter on a package or a

selfish car-boundday tripper. Even the

associated employment is seen as insub-

stantial compared with ‘real’ jobs. ‘Sus-

tainable tourism’ is often seen as a contra-

diction in terms.

Yet almost every local authority wants

a larger share of this dubious industry

and, when asked, a large majority of local

residents will usually claim to be in favour

of more tourism. Every local authority

has an obligation, and most the desire, to

adopt locally the principles of the Rio

Conference on Development and the

Environment - Agenda 21, jargonised in

English as ‘sustainable development’

where development (economic growth)

is pursued subject to constraints to

protect the interests offuture generations.

How can tourism be part of such a

benign growth? We had a chance to

examine the paradox in Chepstow in

South Wales and later, working with the

Walled Towns Friendship Circle and EC

funding, inConwy, North Wales, Naarden

in the Netherlands and Alcudia in

Mallorca.* These four small towns are

host to over a million day and overnight

visitors a year. Each plans increased

numbers or at least increased revenue;

the studies examined how such increases,

wanted for their revenue and

employment, could be made compatible

with NOT degrading the social and

physical environment. That is to ask

whether tourism could become more

sustainable.

Walled towns concentrate the issues

apparent in all historic towns and cities,

which were generally defined by their

fortffications and customs walls until the

industrial revolution, even in England

but predominantly in the rest of Europe,

including Wales. Onagrand scale Chester,

Canterbury and York attract and absorb

visitors by the million but small towns

may have comparable ratios of visitors to

population. Conwy’s half million visitors

to 10,000 residents is not dissimilar to

Chester’s 5 million to 100,000 residents.

‘Bruce, D. M.: Tourism in walled towns’, Tour-

ism Management, 1994. 15. (3), pp. 228-230.

SUSTAINABLE

TOURISM IN

CHEPSTOW

AND CONWY

David Bruce discusses two

Welsh case studies

Other small historic walled towns may

feel actually missed out as bypasses

remove incidental visits, as in Chepstow

(130,000 visitors to 11,000 residents).

The fourtowns compared inthe study

funded by the European Commission fall

into both categories. ConwyandAlcudia

(Mallorca) are both on the doorstep of

mass tourism and are heavily visited;

Chepstow and Naarden (outside

Amsterdam) are both apparently ‘under-

visited’. This note focuses on the

contrasting experiences of thetwo Welsh

towns, while taking note of the lessons

from the other two towns.

Chepstow is a former river port

sheltering beside a vast Norman Castle,

withatowngate and thePortwall defining

the medieval town. Guarding the entry

to South Wales, the Wye Valley, and the

Forest of Dean, it has been repeatedly

bypassedbygreatfeats ofcivil engineering

- Brunel s railway bridge and the Severn

Tunnel, the Severn/Wye toll road bridge,

a further ‘relief road Wye bridge and

(under construction) the Second Severn

Crossing.

Conwy is the strategic key to North

Wales and Snowdonia with UNESCO

World Heritage status for its Edward I

castle and encompassing walls. Finally

bypassed in 1992 at enormous, if

environment-friendly expense by a

toll-free tunnel under the Conwy

estuary, it lies at the edge of the

traditional North Wales resort area

stretching from Llandudno, with its

20,000 bedspaces, eastwards.

The Wales Tourist Board LEAD (local

enterprise and development) initiative

from 1989 to 1994 investedpublic money

and aimed to stimulate private investment

in upgrading both Chepstow and Conwy

and ‘restoring’ tourism after the removal

of trunk road traffic from each town

centre. Project Conwy was set up for

three years to 1994 as a team reporting to

a local authority and a Wales national

steering group to manage the

implementation of a 1988 tourism plan

by Lmduse Consultants.

AstudybyUWE, Bristol to report later

this year to Monmouth Borough Council

has aimed to assess the impact of LEAD in

Chepstow. The study has established an

appraisal method which recognises the

primary Government economic objective

of enhandng revenue and associated

employment from tourism but which

sets additional Success Criteria. These

address the ‘sustainability’ of the

outcome. With European funding

(DGXXIII - the Tourism Unit) in 1993,

the necessaryparallel studies were carried

out in Conwy as well as Naarden and

Alcudia. Tourists, residents and

businesses were surveyed and

performance indicators identified. This

triangle of success criteria, studies and

performance indicators provides the basis

for ‘benchmarking’ and thereby

measuring change over time. In

Chepstow this can be done over the five

yearperiod; in Conwy, some comparison

with the data from the earlier tourism

study has been possible and in Alcudia

and Naarden the basis for later

comparison has been achieved.

Chepstow’s success criteria, derived

from the results of public consultation

and discussion with local authority

officers, proved broadly applicable to

the other towns. A successful tourism

growth policy is recognised if it is

achieved, for instance:

El without road traffic growth and asso-

ciated carbon emissions per day per visi-

tor;

El without upsetting the townspeople;

- without more pedestrian danger;

El without damaging the historic town

CONTEXT 46