EcoDewi is committed to protecting the St Davids Peninsula environment whilst also supporting the community. This has led us to consider how we can support sustainable or regenerative tourism in the area. As such, we have recently begun working on the topic with a variety of other local organisations and business such as St Davids City Council, St Davids Tourism & Trade Association, Oriel y Parc, TYF and the University of Wales Trinity St David, amongst others.
On Wednesday 6th April, along with other local volunteers and organisations we are arranging a ‘drop-in’ community engagement event to share the results of the recent tourism survey and to give more people a chance to raise their voices and ideas. Details in the poster below.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the tourism survey that was designed by local volunteers and hand delivered across most of St Davids City and outskirts, as well as being available in English and Welsh online. It’s taken more volunteers a few weeks to collate and start analysing the responses, but we are now excited to start sharing some of those results.
The infographic below (in English and Welsh) highlights the key findings from this innovative grassroots exploration of how local residents and workers in St Davids feel about the impact of tourism on the area. Conversations have begun with some local organisations and businesses including St Davids City Council, PCC and PCNPA and the next step in our plan is to hold a Community Engagement event. This will take place in St Davids City Hall on Wednesday 6th April from 3pm – 6pm and we’ll share more details about that soon. Get the date in your diary and enjoy the info below.
English – download here
St-Davids-Tourism-Survey-Results-Infographic-ENGCymraeg – llwytho I lawn yma
St-Davids-Tourism-Survey-Results-Infographic-CYM
A group of local organisations and businesses in St Davids have recently begun discussing how we can work together with the community to investigate: the impacts of tourism on the area, how we might be able to improve things for both residents and visitors, and how we can make tourism more sustainable / environmentally friendly. This new informal working group includes members of St Davids City Council, St Davids Tourism & Trade Association, EcoDewi, Oriel y Parc, TYF and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David amongst others.
Following an initial meeting at Whitesands beach on 12th January 2022 in glorious weather, it was decided that the most important thing to start with was to ask those who live and work in St Davids what they think. Whilst the group would have loved to organise an in-person community engagement event, due to COVID it was decided to delay this for now. So, a short and basic survey was quickly produced and around 1,000 copies were printed and hand delivered by volunteers across mainly St Davids City before the end of January. An online version in Welsh and English was also made available thanks to translation services by Helo Blod, a Welsh Government service.
Residents and local workers have been asked to complete and return the survey by Sunday 6th February; paper responses can be dropped of at Oriel y Parc, TYF or St Davids Food & Wine, who have each kindly placed a box on their main shop counters for this purpose. After that date, the group will meet to collate and analyse all the responses, aiming to share the results as soon as possible after the event.
The topic of tourism in the area can evoke strong opinions and responses, and is understandable a passionate topic for many local people who rely on the tourism trade to make a living or who perhaps are somehow impacted by the effects of high number of visitors each year; with exceptional numbers of tourists in 2020 and 2021. This new group is voluntary, independent and whilst it doesn’t necessarily have the power to implement change itself, it aims to raise the voice of local people to the decision makers. The group wants to highlight some key themes and suggestions, which can then be raised to policy decision makers at Pembrokeshire County Council, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and St Davids City Council, amongst other authorities, as well as providing suggestions to local businesses and organisations.
EcoDewi is very excited to be involved with this ambitious grassroots project, taking the voice of the local community and trying to improve the peninsula. Watch this space for updates!