Conference explores development of sustainable trails

The second Sustainable Trails Conference has opened today in the Marlborough region of New Zealand’s South Island.

After the success and feedback received from the inaugural Sustainable Trails Conference which was held in 2017 in the Snowy Mountains of NSW, TRC Tourism is presenting the 2019 Sustainable Trails Conference over three days, from 1st April (with delegates arriving in the evening) to 4th April 2019 (when delegates depart or choose to stay on for optional field trips).

Based at the Marlborough Vintners Hotel located in the Renwick wine region of Marlborough, the conference is bringing together trails experts to deliver insights and share their knowledge with other experts, budding experts and those completely new to trails who wish to learn or who might have ideas and knowledge of their own to share.

The program will include keynote speakers along with forums and opportunities to exchange ideas and information in informal sessions. The conference will focus on all aspects of sustainable trails based around the conference themes.

Just across the Cook Strait, the Wellington Regional Trails Framework, launched in 2017, provides a framework for the development of a nationally recognised trail destination, including improved governance and trail collaboration among the partners.

The strategy and framework provides the partners with a hierachy of trails and an approach to managing them that will aid the destination in becoming a nationally recognised trail hub, beyond the current collection of individual trails. Recommendations are currently being implemented and include the 2018 appointment of a Regional Trails Coordinator based in Wellington to deliver the strategic priority actions.

To help deliver a truly regional approach, while providing local government’s with the certainty they need to continue to manage locally important community assets, a hierachy of trails based on agreed criteria was developed and implemented allowing the important higher priority trails to be managed to provide a regional outcomes. Recommendations were also made on implementing regional trail information channels, marketing to visitors, and on ground facilities based on the priority of the trail in a regional context.

Click here to read a copy of the Wellington Regional Trails for the Future report.

Click here for more information on the Sustainable Trails Conference in the Australasian Leisure Management industry Calendar.  

Lower image courtesy of Wellington City Council.