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Regional conference on 29th September 2009

Regional conference on 29th September 2009

Published on 06 October 2009 - Updated 22 December 2010
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 15 ans

Loire Valley quality label, Mission Val de Loire

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:

Report of the Val de Loire tourist season
Report of the World Heritage Rendezvous
Review of the draft management plan for the listed site
Review of the implementation of the Loire Fleet and Ports Plan

Report of the Val de Loire tourist season

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.

Report of the World Heritage Rendezvous

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.

Review on the draft management plan for the listed site

To meet UNESCO's expectations, the Prefect of the Centre Region suggested drawing up a management plan at the Regional Conference in July 2008.

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.