Defining sustainable transport in rural tourism: experiences from the New Forest

Transport policy agendas have long sought to bring about more sustainable transport at tourism destinations. While there are examples of successes, it remains unclear what inroads have been made towards creating a sustainable transport future. Policy directions have evolved over a number of years and in many tourism destination contexts it is far from clear what a desirable transport future looks like. When translated to implementation, the aims of initiatives can be unclear and baseline measures inconsistent, making success difficult to judge. This paper analyses how sustainable travel has been implemented in practice at a destination level. The focus is rural tourism and data are derived from a specific case, the New Forest National Park, UK, where a wide range of transport initiatives have been implemented since the Park’s designation in 2005. The study adopts a social practice theory perspective. Data are derived from a visitor survey, interviews and observations. It finds there is scope to improve sustainable transport provision at destinations through understanding visitor practices, but limited scope to influence meanings associated with visitor travel and travel skills. Policy meets the needs of some visitors more than others

Local Authority planning provision for Event Management in Ireland: A Socio-Cultural Perspective

The increasing popularity of the event sector in Ireland has resulted in many community events being developed and marketed to international and domestic tourists alike. This growth has had an effect on host communities in a positive and negative manner. This paper assesses the current levels of Local Authority socio-cultural planning provision and guidelines for event management in Ireland. To achieve this, a content analysis approach was used to illustrate which Local Authorities in the Republic of Ireland employed socio-cultural tools and indicators for event management. Accordingly, analysis revealed a lack of Local Authority socio-cultural planning guidelines or policies for event management. However, this offers and opportunity to be improved by implementing and applying best practice indicators in socio-cultural policies and guidelines for event management in Ireland

Moving to learn Ireland – Classroom teachers’ experiences of movement integration

Considering recent attention to the school's role in physical activity promotion, this study describes experiences of primary school teachers who implemented a movement integration programme in their classrooms. Teachers' perceptions are important to consider when developing and implementing movement integration resources. The teachers in this study highlighted perceived benefits to their students as an attraction to movement integration, cited barriers of time and space, and requested support related to movement integration implementation. When considering future research and practice we must continue to seek out effective ways to support classroom teachers while considering the multiple levels of influence present in schools

Rethinking Zoning for People: Utilizing the Concept of the Village (Abstract)

In this chapter, we propose it is time to re-think and re-imagine how we approach zoning. This is especially true for suburban developments. Today, especially in the United States, zoning in suburban areas is being used to segregate and separate the component parts of our communities into distinct zones which are spread out geographically and in most cases require the daily use of an automobile. The negative consequences of this form of development for health, community and the environment are discussed. Using a study of neighborhoods in Dublin, Ireland and its suburbs we examine how professionals and the public view the places they live and connect these perspectives to the manner in which zoning has changed over the course of the twentieth century. Insights from these professionals and the public lead us to propose that planners, engineers and developers be expected to think more about the kinds of walkable village neighborhoods that people seem to be drawn to almost instinctively. We urge that zoning laws be re-purposed to enable the building of communities that people prefer to live in