Credit: Middlebere Heath, Jon Bish
About Sustainable Tourism
Hundreds of thousands of people want to visit the Purbeck Heaths to camp, explore, share the delights of local food & drink, connect with nature and to just be on holiday.
How can we provide these experiences whilst managing the area for the future? What does ‘sustainable tourism’ mean?
Sustainable tourism is the cross-over of three components; social impacts (local communities, the culture and heritage of a place), environmental impacts (positive nature impacts protecting and enhancing) and the economy (decent jobs and benefits for local communities).
Future for the Heaths
We’d like to see a future for the Purbeck Heaths where:
- Tourism has a positive affect on the environment, society and economy
- Tourism provides an enjoyable, educational and authentic experience that respects and meets the needs of both the local communities and visitors
- Management of the area (including tourism) protects and enhances future opportunities and long-term viability of valuable resources e.g. NNR status, wildlife, habitats, archaeology and history of the area, locally produced food and drink.
Credit: Picture 1
Download the Purbeck Heaths sustainable tourism plan
A variety of local businesses, parish councillors and elected members, land-owners, land managers, graziers and community action groups have worked together with international sustainable tourism organisation ‘The Travel Foundation’ to form a sustainable tourism plan for the Purbeck Heath area to help us effectively manage visitor pressures on the landscape and its local communities while ensuring we can all enjoy this amazing place.
Download the plan
Credit: Middlebere Heath, Jon Bish
Discover more
Low impact visits
Let’s reduce our negative impacts and commit to positively impacting the local environment, local economy and communities surrounding the Purbeck Heaths
Purbeck Heaths Promise
Join us in keeping this landscape spectacular and helping to improve it even further
