9C Rebranding Rural Places
There are a range of rural rebranding strategies in the post-production countryside based on heritage and literary associations, farm diversification and specialised products, outdoor pursuits and adventure in both accessible and remote areas; these strategies are intended to make these places more attractive to national and international tourists and visitors (‘Brontë country, Kielder Forest)
The post production countryside refers to rural areas that no longer make most of their income from food production and other primary sector employment like fishing, forestry and quarrying.
These rural areas are harder to rebrand because of their (relative) isolation - it is very hard to attract visitors and/or investors to northwest Scotland or north Northumberland.
Because of this, they frequently focus on quite a narrow 'brand' to attract a particular type of visitor to spend their money.
It is important to get visitors to stay in an area for at least one night, as they then spend money on accomodation and food. In order to achieve this:
- There needs to be a range of accommodation options from campsites to bothies, B&Bs and expensive hotels
- There needs to be plenty to see and do
Farm Diversification/Specialised Products
The exception to this is accessible rural areas (15-30 minute drive, often home to commuters) close to cities. Farms in these places find diversification easy because people will drive out into the countryside to visit a tea room, farm shop, go paint-balling, etc. on a regular basis. Diversification means farms, and rural areas generally, finding new income to replace farming as the main source of income, especially in leisure and tourism.
The Milkhope Centre in Northumberland (with a farm shop, coffee shop, butchers, gallery, stone gallery) is located about 8 km north of Newcastle in an accessible rural area, old farm buildings have been repurposed to diversify into a range of retail units, some selling specialised products such as outdoor clothing and organically produced meat and vegetables.
Other specialised products may be cheese or buffalo meat production.
More Remote Rural Areas
In more remote rural areas, the strategy is to attract people and get them to stay:
- Literary associations
- Brontë Country: bleak, wild moorland of the Pennine Hills in West Yorkshire and East Lancashire inspired works including 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Jane Eyre', by the Brontë sisters. The village of Haworth, where they were born, is a tourist hotspot with a cobbled high street and small stone houses once used by sweatshop-type textile weavers, as well as the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Visitors are encouraged to explore the area with attractions such as Pondon Hall, believed to have inspired Thrushcross Grange (Wuthering Heights), and Wildfell Hall (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall). A film was produced 'Brontë Country: The Story of the Emily, Charlotte & Anne Brontë', which may convince people to visit...
- Heritage
- Nothumberland Coastal Route: stretching from Alnmouth to Berwick and including a Heritage Coast, this area (one important for fishing and coal mining) promotes its coastal castles (Warkworth, Dunstanburgh and Bamburgh) as well as the historic Lindisfarm Gospels on Holy Island. Nearby Alnwick Castle was the set for some of the Harry Potter films, attracting younger people.
- Outdoor Pursuits
- Kielder Water and Forest Park an 'outdoor nature playground'
- Kielder is a very remote village in Northumberland. 1930s, large coniferous plantation built and a 11 km long reservoir in 1975
- Attracts 350,000 visitors annually - walking, fishing, birdwatchers, stargazers, archery, mini golf
- Red squirrels and ospreys
- Observatory for Dark Skies to attract astrotourism
- Kielder Water and Forest Park an 'outdoor nature playground'
- Outdoor Adventure
- Blaenau Ffestiniog in north Wales was once an important centre for slate production. Now the abandoned slate quarries and hills have become a centre for adventure tourism including Zip World (zip wire rides, up to four people, reaches speeds of 70 miles per hour) and Bounce Below (trampolining in caves) and the Antur Stiniog downhill mountain bike trails.
Rural regeneration can be very successful, but it is worth noting that at least in the UK the rural economy tends to be very seasonal and weather dependent. In addition some outdoor activities such as walking and going on a 'Sunday afternoon drive' do not bring much money into the rural economy. Rural areas have to fight hard to attract people, and to get them to stay and spend.
Players
DEFRA - works with partners including local government networks, civil society organisations (Pub is the Hub, the Plunkett Foundation), local action groups, business groups, charities (National Trust) and organisations like the Rural Coalition including the NFU and CPRE.
17 rural and farming networks have been created in England to help organise rural policies.