|
 Making
a living
The Broads have developed over the years as a commercial landscape.
Today tourism and farming are the main industries on the Broads,
and both face the challenge of maximising their potential
and protecting the natural and social fabric of the area.
Tourism
"It took me a good half an
hour to search for moorings, and then I was stuck on the
wrong side of the river from the pub. So my plans for a
nice pub meal went out of the window and I had to make do
with cooking on the boat." Broads holidaymaker.
In recent years the Broads have been attacked
as a holiday blackspot. An article in Escape Routes magazine
charged this special holiday area as being congested, murky
and without enough to do.
Naturally the Broads Authority dismissed
the article, stating that the Broads has one of the highest
number of repeat visits than any other tourist area.
Despite this reassurance, the boat hire
industry in the Broads has been suffering, with half of the
boatyards disappearing over the last 20 years.
Robert Paul, a boatyard owner for more
than 30 years explains:
"Holiday patterns have changed. For the same price
as a holiday on the Broads people can fly to Spain. We've
lost the traditional family holidays, and now people who
come here are on short breaks or second holidays. These
attract pub crawlers, making the area rowdy and ruining
other people's holidays."
The Broads has a distinctive and
attractive character, sits in a popular tourist destination
and is in easy reach of London and the southeast. The potential
for the regeneration of tourism in the area is enormous. And
by and large, the industry is not standing still, and knows
it must change with the times. But in which direction?
Farming
The Broads is a rural community, and a great deal of its population
is dependent on agriculture for a livelihood.
The condition of the Broads and the quality of its habitats
depend greatly on the way that the surrounding land is managed.
This of course has a knock on effect on the quality of the
experience to the visitor, so it is very important to bring
farmers into the picture.
A number of agri-environment schemes, which provide incentives
to farmers to protect or restore wildlife habitats in their
land, have also been introduced. 
Farming on the Broads
|
in Norfolk