Jurassic Coast reaches international audiences

The Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, known as The Jurassic Coast, spans some 95 miles of stunning coastline, with rocks recording 185 million years of the Earth’s history. This “geological walk through time” designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001 for its “outstanding universal value”, attracts visitors from an increasing range of countries as well as the traditional markets of France, Holland, Germany and Spain.

German university student Katharina Fettweis at Durdle Door
on the Jurassic Coast

England’s first natural World Heritage Site has fired much global interest. The Jurassic Coast team based at both Devon and Dorset County Councils has reached out to international audiences with easy to access information in multiple languages to inspire further exploration of the Jurassic Coast.

Leaflets printed in French, German, Dutch and Spanish are distributed to tourist information and visitor centres, museums and accommodation providers as well as VisitBritain offices at home and abroad. The Jurassic Coast website has “welcome” pages in these four foreign languages and downloadable translated mini guides.

The Jurassic Coast team sought assistance from the Regional Language Network South West (RLN SW) in ways to further improve the welcome to overseas visitors both in their pre trip planning and during their stay. The ideal opportunity arose with the arrival of a German university student on a six week summer work placement.

RLN SW advisor, Philada Rogers was asked by Julia Pulman, Jurassic Coast marketing officer to help mentor the student, Katharina Fettweis and to help develop an ambitious work programme.

As a result, Katharina’s core project was to look at the offer provided for overseas visitors to the Jurassic Coast and make recommendations. Her work included observing a half day walking tour with a German speaking guide on the coast around Lulworth, welcoming German cruise ship visitors on a shuttle bus around Weymouth and Portland, spending a week with a countryside ranger and talking to TIC and Visitor Centre managers and foreign visitors to gauge their views.

RLN SW also advised and worked on further language development to produce an informative downloadable podcast about the Jurassic Coast guide in German. A German volunteer from the RLN SW special interest language network proofed the script before it was recorded by Katharina. The podcast is now available on www.jurassiccoast.com.

This has been a great success as Julia Pulman explains: “Podcasts are an easy, user friendly and economic way to reach overseas visitors who may be planning a visit to the Jurassic Coast. We can more readily add to this type of information resource than we could using the more traditional printed format. We are now keen to produce several more language versions with the help of RLN SW.

“Multi lingual information provision also improves our response to enquiries from international colleagues and world media interest in the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. We have discussed with RLN SW the possibility of doing podcasts for all competitor languages in the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in Dorset.

“It’s essential to look at the welcome experience through the eyes of visitors. The combination of using a German university student and the assistance of RLN SW has been invaluable. It has stressed the importance of getting the cultural aspects right too.

“Working with RLN SW has given us extra confidence in dealing with language and cultural issues associated with information provision. The advice has been down to earth, practical and cost effective and led to introductions to a wider network of local people keen to help.”

Philada Rogers, RLN SW advisor credits the steps taken by the Jurassic Coast team to work towards a world class welcome for overseas visitors.

“Good international communications are essential to convey messages of conservation and education about The Jurassic Coast. RLN SW has been pleased to advise and help develop innovative ways to reach overseas visitors with the help of local community volunteers.”

Visit the Jurassic Coast website at www.jurassiccoast.com.

 

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