As part of this year's Low Carbon festival (5-12 October) the National Park Authority is hosting a workshop for tourism businesses wanting to find out more about Renewable Energy options. The workshop will include speakers from the National Park Authority's Carbon Neutral Exmoor project and a range of businesses who have already installed renewable energy. The event takes place at Porlock Village Hall from 11am to 2pm on the 12 October.

 

The programme includes opportunities to learn how renewable energy can cut costs, how you can benefit financially from the Clean Energy Cashback scheme (Feed in Tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive), a warts and all assessment of the different types of technology available and their applicability to Exmoor tourism businesses and practical information based on real life scenarios.

 

The event costs just £5 including a buffet lunch. Advanced booking is essential - please send a cheque (payable to Exmoor National Park Authority) with your name and business to Ben Eardley at Exmoor National Park Authority (see end of email for full address). Download a flier here (PDF).

  

The Exmoor Tourism Partnership has published its annual update for 2011.

 

The report contains a full update on the new website, a summary of shows visited, an overview of marketing work last year and plans for the future and much more besides. The report has been sent to many providers and can also be downloaded here.

 

The annual Exmoor Tourism Conference is scheduled to take place on the 23 November at Exford (tbc). Further details will be sent in the future, in the meantime please make a note of the date and plan to join us.

This year the acclaimed BBC programme Autumn Watch will be coming to Exmoor. On the 21 October the programme will be aired live from the National Park and feature a number of Exmoor related stories. With a first class natural environment playing host to an abundant range of flora and fauna this will be a great opportunity to show case the National Park to a wide audience.  

 

Crew clothing have recently published their latest autumn catalogue which features Exmoor as the location for all their photography. Many of the photos also appear on their website.

Thank you to those tourism providers that responded to our survey last time showing your support for our Dark Sky Reserve bid for Exmoor. The results were very encouraging, not only in demonstrating the number of supporters for this initiative but also showing how much action is already being undertaken to protect our dark skies.

 

The application has now been submitted to the International Dark Skies Association. If successful Exmoor will be one of only 3 designated Dark Sky area in the UK (alongside Galloway Forest in Scotland as a Dark Sky Park and Sark in the Channel Islands as a Dark Sky Community). Exmoor is seeking to be a Dark Sky Reserve and could be the first ever in Europe.

 

Independent verifiers have been to the area (kindly hosted by the White Horse at Exford where Peter Hendrie was able to discuss the potential benefits to tourism in the area) and we eagerly await the final decision later this year.