Andrew Joseph wrote:
Thanks for raising these issues... This is a major concern for me... Sustainable tourism is a term much abused and the issues appear to a great extent intractable given the conflicting nature of the interested parties most interestingly WHS who appear to want people to look but not touch... I think things only retain there relevance to people because they are used in some way... William Morris (admittedly by way of Tony Wilson) once said: "Nothing useless can be truly beautiful" I believe The Ridgeway and the sites along its route to have beauty and majesty, I hope to awaken an interest in walking mindfully along the route whilst acknowledging and to a great extent incorporating the conflicted nature of the exercise... I know its difficult and has challenges but to the individual and the landscape, but to some extent that is the point of taking a "pilgrimage"?
I don't think you are talking about a lot of people either, but one has to consider the problems that already exist that any increase/changes in visitor numbers/patterns may exacerbate. Hence it is particularly interesting that your impression of the WHS is look but don't touch, which is not how I see it. More visit, look, touch, but don't climb on the monuments or park your car on the verges as there's irreplaceable archaeology all over the place. As an aside I don't think it will mean a great mass of additional people walking the route...