Green holidays brochure launched in Wales

Tourists can walk, cycle, ride, mountain bike, eat and relax plus support a green local business

With Wales Sustainability Week (14th – 21st May) on the horizon and just under a month to go before the internationally renowned Hay Festival descends upon the Brecon Beacons, timing couldn’t be more perfect for visitors to pick up the newly launched ‘Greener Holidays’ brochure aimed at helping visitors have a cleaner, greener and more eco-friendly stay in the National Park.

Festival lovers can expect a lot more from the Brecon Beacons this year with fantastic opportunities to walk, cycle, and mountain bike, follow a new canal food trail, take a journey off the beaten track or just hang out in the Park’s unique countryside with a good book or a great sound track. Visitors will also be pleased to know that they could be staying in all the right places by supporting the area’s green and eco-friendly tourism businesses.

The National Park Authority has been in full swing promoting eco-friendly accommodation, local Welsh food and culture, along with traffic free cycle, horse-riding, fishing and canal routes – which they hope will encourage visitors to the Brecon Beacons to extend their stay. 

All that work is supported by a brand new leaflet called ‘Greener Holidays’ which showcases over 20 unique tourism businesses that have received a gold, silver or bronze awards under the respected Green Tourism Business Scheme.

A unique approach has been taken producing the leaflet where each tourism business has provided a statement about what it does to be considered green. This makes is clear to visitors exactly what each individual business has done to achieve its award, which could be anything from being a family run organic farm, solar panel generation, using home and garden produce in menus, promoting car free activities, self sufficiency to installing dual flush eco-friendly toilets.  In fact the green credentials list is endless!

As well as providing a directory of green businesses to choose from, the leaflet also shows visitors what part they can play in the drive towards greener tourism with eco-information including advice on buying local produce, reducing the impact of waste on the National Park, leaving the car at home, following the countryside code and learning about local culture.

Nick Stewart, Collabor8 Officer for Brecon Beacons National Park Authority said: “Every year, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority does more and more to attract responsible visitors who care about the environment, providing a huge economic boost for sustainable businesses throughout the Park.   The aim of the new Greener Holidays brochure is to help visitors make more informed choices that have a positive impact on the destination.”

“It’s only half the task working with businesses to improve their environmental performance. Those businesses need to be gaining more custom as a result of their efforts, so the share of the market  increases for greener products and services. Then we are really moving towards sustainable tourism businesses – when the balance between satisfied visitors, improved environmental and social impact, and financially thriving business is struck.  Visitors have a clear option of choosing accommodation or businesses that look after the environment every bit as well as they look after their guests.”

“As well as working with local tourism businesses to help make tourism greener, it’s important that we’re also working to help our visitors have a great low impact holiday that helps keep the Brecon Beacons National Park as beautiful and as healthy as it is now.”

For those who want to relax and embrace the great outdoors, Brecon Beacons National Park has a network of over 2000km of well-maintained footpaths, bridleways, cycle, mountain biking and canal routes.

The new ‘Greener Holidays’ brochure is available from all Tourist Information Centres throughout the National Park (including Brecon, Abergavenny, Hay on Wye and Llandovery). 

It can also be downloaded atwww.greenbreconbeacons.com

Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite – special offers HERE