On Tuesday 29th September 2009, Fontevraud Royal Abbey hosted the Val de Loire World Heritage Regional Conference, co-chaired by Bernard Fragneau, Prefect for the Centre Region and Coordinator of the Plan Loire Grandeur Nature, together with François Bonneau, President of the Centre Region and the Val de Loire Mission, and Jacques Auxiette, President of the Pays de la Loire Region and first Vice-President of the Val de Loire Mission.
For the first time, this meeting brought together
representatives of the communities of towns and villages in the
listed site, as well as members of the Trade Union
Committee of the Val de Loire Mission.
The agenda's items reflect the protection and promotion
objectives defined by the Val de Loire World Heritage:
The main heritage sites in the Val de Loire
The unprecedented joint efforts of the
great Loire châteaux, undertaken under the aegis of the
Centre and Pays de la Loire Regions and the State as part of the
Plan Loire Grandeur Nature, are perceptible with
an increase in visitor numbers of around 5% in 2009,
whereas, for comparative purposes, this is just 3% for the rest of
the tourist sites in the Centre region.
New initiatives and a greater range of services are the
strong points to which the site operators attribute these
positive trends, quite remarkable for some sites such as the
Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire with +28% compared with 2008!
The Loire à Vélo
The increasing popularity of the Loire à Vélo
(258,000 cyclists a year take to the cycle path in the Centre
region) is proof of
the project's relevance and the efforts undertaken by both
regions and their partners.
The Loire à Vélo has firmly kept its promise to be a
key project for developing tourism in the Val de
Loire.
-
In 2009, 616 km were opened up to cycling
tourists, with 5 new stretches becoming accessible.
- The regional tourist institutions (Centre Regional Tourist
Board and Pays de la Loire Regional Semi-Public Company) have
installed
service information points, conducted promotional
campaigns, promoted the website www.loire-a-velo.fr and published
new communication media.
- The Val de Loire Mission has awarded the
Loire
à Vélo label, on behalf of both regions, to
increasing numbers of receptive professionals in 2009, with
114 listed service providers.
François Bonneau,
President of the Centre Region, and Jacques Auxiette, President of
the Pays de Loire Region, have expressed their thanks for the
tremendous involvement of associations and local authorities
in this new Loire initiative organised by the Val de Loire Mission
to promote the UNESCO listing and raise the awareness of Val de
Loire inhabitants and visitors about this.
This "first" has
validated the principle of festive Rendezvous devoted to world
heritage. The objectives and arrangements for the next
Rendezvous will be defined at the end of 2009.
The main outlines of an initial version of the draft
management plan, drawn up by regional state departments
(Centre & Pays de Loire Diren, Centre DRAC, SDAP of the four
counties concerned) with help from the Val de Loire Mission, were
presented at the Regional Conference.
The current project has four themes:
-
identity values
-
threats
-
an action plan, focused on development and management
areas of the region
-
the State's commitments, particularly including
the implementation of new regulatory forms of protection.
The French Ministers of Culture and Ecology, who liaise
with UNESCO, have validated the principle of the draft,
but would nonetheless like to see tourist management, site
management and education added to the list of themes.
Based on this document,
a period of joint discussion between the regional
authorities will be conducted in each county, under the aegis
of the Prefect. The Regional Conference will once again give its
views on an extended document whose end objective is to form
a joint reference for the shared management of the Val de Loire
World Heritage.
See below:
Loire
Fleet and Ports: a strong commitment to redevelop the
river
Rendez-vous
du patrimoine mondial
Management system for the World Heritage SiteThe main heritage sites of the Val de Loire
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