Harry Presents ‘Sustainable Tourism: Small Business - Big Ideas' at the 7th European Charter Network Meeting - Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas - Building Bridges - Seeking Solutions, Djerdap National Park, Serbia 28th June - 1st July 2011
Harry was recently invited to speak at the 7th European Charter Network Meeting, held within the Djerdap National Park, located in the southeastern part of Europe, in the Southeast of Serbia on the border with Romania.
Organised by Public Enterprise ‘National Park Djerdap' and partnered by the Ministry of Environment, Mining and Special Planning, Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, National Tourism Organization of Serbia and The Association of National Parks and Protected Areas of Serbia, the event focused on the growing interest from many Eastern European countries in sustainable tourism - and the wider aspects - hence the conference title "Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas: Building Bridges - Seeking solutions".
As one of the first European Charter Partners, Harry was thrilled to be invited to speak at the event, and be given the opportunity to share his experiences to a Serbian audience keen to discover the benefits sustainable tourism can deliver to protected areas, entrepreneurs and local communities.
Harry's presentation ‘Sustainable Tourism: Small Business - Big Ideas' focused on Clough Bottom's diversification over the last 30 years. Critical to the business strategy throughout this time has been the desire to operate as sustainably as possible; put ‘purpose before profit'; and "leave the place in a better place than we found it".
The four-day conference included speeches and workshops exploring the thinking behind sustainable tourism, as well as highlighting examples of best practice from around the Charter network. Keynote speeches were given by Dr Xavier Font, Centre for Responsible Tourism, Leeds University,La Garroxta Nature Park, Catalonia, Spain, Adamello Brenta Natural Park, Italy, Le Mercantour National Park, France, and others.
Harry commented "Our ‘eco' beliefs and sustainable ethos is at the heart of everything we do at Clough Bottom. We are a green business in it for the long term. Our vision is in the detail, which is why we subscribe to continuous improvement - always evaluating what we do, and what we can do better and more responsibly. We hope our approach will help safeguard this very special environment for future generations. It was an honour and a privilege to have been invited to speak at this very important, strategic event - if I was able to inspire just one person to embark on the enormously important sustainable tourism journey, it will have been worthwhile."
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