The Brecon Beacons National Park
Activity and Research 7
7. A SWOT analysis for the Brecon Beacons National Park
Strengths
- High quality natural environment with a range of landscape and scenery
- Rich biodiversity and good opportunities to experience wildlife
- Good opportunities for walking, cycling, horseriding and other activities
- Close to large numbers of potential staying visitors
- Brecon Beacons is a well known name (brand) in the UK domestic tourism market
- Good network of activity providers
- Some very well-known events
- Businesses willing to get together and work in partnerships
- Some award-winning self-catering, camping and restaurants.
Weaknesses
- Dominated by day visitors
- Over reliance on private cars to travel to and within the National Park
- Declining number of people want to stay in serviced accommodation
- Uneven distribution of tourism businesses across the National Park
- Limited provision of visitor attractions, larger serviced accommodation (hotels) and quality restaurants
- Variable quality of serviced accommodation
- Lack of tourist facilities in some rural areas
- Large number of local authorities involved in the National Park
- Relatively low levels of spending by day and staying visitors
Opportunities
- Growth of short break market especially those interested in:
-health and well-being
-activities
-food and drink
-heritage and culture
-wildlife tourism;
- Geographically close to main markets
- Development of visits using public transport routes:
- Heart of Wales line
- Abergavenny as a gateway station
- Beacon Bus
- Development of Brecon Beacons as a brand
- Maximising the benefits of the major events in the National Park
- Increasing the use of the Internet for advance accommodation bookings and visitor information
- Increased emphasis on healthy lifestyles, health agenda and ‘escapism’
- Growing interest in local produce, especially food and drink.
Threats
- Managing the various agencies and public bodies working in the National Park
- Failure to engage private sector organisations
- Increasing competition from other destinations elsewhere in the UK and overseas
- Reduction in public funding for Visit Wales and other regional tourist boards
- Failure to demonstrate the importance of tourism to he economy
- Tourism thought of and creating negative impacts on the environment and damaging the environment in some locations.
- Produce a PowerPoint presentation of four slides summarising the SWOT analysis for the National Park.
- How could the National Park Authority address the weaknesses outlined in the SWOT?
- What do you consider to be the main threats to the National Park? Give reasons for your answer.