Cynefin Regenerative Tourism

Here at Galwad y Mor we are working with the ‘Cynefin Regenerative Tourism’ approach to attract and host new visitors who want to make a difference to our community and volunteer within the wealth of local environmentally sustainable organisations who work ethically to protect our community and environment. We are working with Eco Dewi , Car y Mor and other social enterprises and businesses and community groups to embrace the concept of Cynefin Dewi here in St Davids. Through the concept of ‘Voluntourism’, we at Galwad y Mor will work to facilitate your stay and coordinate either individual or group volunteering activities. Your stay will support positive change and regeneration in our community and environment. We hope in turn to provide you with a wonderful experience, one of meaningful, positive value, which enhances your own well-being. Regenerative Tourism, for us, is this mutual exchange of well-being of people and place.

Our story of Regenerative Tourism began 40 years ago, when our director David Lloyd, founded St Davids Vacation Club. Now it might not have been known as Regenerative Tourism at the time, indeed sustainable tourism wasn’t even paid much lip service! However, the creation of 17 holiday apartments, on an empty plot on St Davids’ high street and the successful marketing campaign, which guaranteed 100% occupancy, is without doubt regeneration on a scale worthy of note. This regeneration was innovative and supported the local economy, bringing visitors to support jobs and businesses year round. And this has been the case for nearly 40 years.

These seeds of regeneration were planted in a very different climate and have flourished over the years. However in today’s climate it has been necessary to find new ways to operate. They say the apple never falls far from the tree and today David’s daughter Becky, our Marketing Manager has devised a new concept to market surplus weeks through our newly branded website and booking platform – ‘Galwad y Mor’ – ‘the call of the sea’. Always with a social conscience for the community we inhabit and a desire to protect the environment too, we at Galwad y Mor are embracing innovative Regenerative Tourism concepts to attract new visitors out of season.

Becky, who recently gained a first class honours degree in Tourism Management at UWTSD is also part of a pioneering group who are on a quest to educate people about Regenerative Tourism. The group recently conducted the ‘Tourism for Good’ residents survey and community engagement event in St Davids. Becky is working closely with the community and her university dissertation attracted an award of commendation for her qualitative study of how tourism impacts the quality of life of residents in St Davids.

Here Becky tells us about her work:

“Cynefin
The word ‘Cynefin’ has been identified through my engagement work as an umbrella for shared vision around regenerative tourism. The word ‘Cynefin’(Pr. ‘kuh-neh-vin’) is a Welsh word, with no direct equivalent in English, which has morphed into a word with many interpretations, both noun and adjective. Roughly translated as “place” or “habitat.” However, it can also be used to describe the elements of our situation and personal history that influence our thoughts and decisions and our impact on our surroundings. Its origins lie in a farming term used to describe the habitual tracks and trails worn by animals in hillsides. The word has so much depth and conjures a very personal sense of place and belonging. The artist Kyffin Williams described it as:
‘that relationship: the place of your birth and of your upbringing, the environment in which you live and to which you are naturally acclimatised.’ Kyffin Williams.

Cynefin as Shared Vision
Do we all share a feeling of ‘Hiraeth’ for what is being threatened and lost here? A physical yearning, a remembrance of attachment and connection, a yearning for our roots from our heart and soul. Connection to what is important – to nature, to each other and to ourselves and our culture is being lost. Pursuit of wealth is eroding the earth’s resources and our very existence on earth. We have a pandemic, a climate crisis, a mental health crisis, a fuel crisis, wars, poverty, overtourism……the list goes on. Could Cynefin bring about a shared vision, the ying to the yang of Hiraeth?

‘Cynefin’ is our habitat, our eco-system, the impact we make on this place, whether we live here or visit here. Cynefin weaves a story and is the perfect tool for further regenerative tourism community engagement, with an aim of bringing people on board, giving them a voice and also educating visitors. It has the capacity to include and unite locals, incomers and visitors alike. It’s grassroots based and it ticks national policy and strategy boxes…..! Cynefin, like the tracks the sheep make on the moors, is the impact we as people have on this Peninsula whether we are visitors or local or incomers. We can all relate to our ‘cynefin’, our habitat, our home, our holiday home, our second home, our home for the day, and it supports all our needs of survival through the resources we need for the time we are here.

Cynefin captures the spirit of Regenerative Tourism
People living, working or visiting St Davids see and feel the problems that growth based tourism brings in peak holiday seasons and the void it leaves out of season in huge contrast. Visit Wales and Visit Pembrokeshire no longer market Wales in peak season in their latest strategies and plans (Visit Wales 2020, Visit Pembrokeshire 2021). Growth based tourism has been replaced by sustainable tourism. Many places encourage visitors to ’leave only footprints in the sand’ and take their litter home and Visit Wales have a campaign ‘Addo’ which in welsh is to make a pledge, encourages visitors to pledge to make a low impact and be consciously aware of how they impact positively during their stay in our communities. It encourages businesses to become green in all they do. However Regenerative Tourism flips sustainable tourism on its head and puts communities first. Regenerative Tourism harnesses tourism as a driver for change and helps places thrive. A community centred approach which puts well-being of people and place at its core. Engaging new conscious travellers who care about our community, about ‘cynefin’; and get involved with not only experiences for their own wellbeing but experiences and connections that will make a difference and a positive impact,rather than a negative one, on our community. Regenerative Tourism recognises that without supporting the local community, the people, with their housing needs (as housing stock becomes holiday homes) and protecting the resources that host all; and the infrastructure, then the whole system can fall apart. If there are staff shortages, congestion, food shortages and collapse of infrastructure and pollution, lack of culture and richening of experience for the visitor then the destination can fall into economic decline.

Regenerative tourism is no quick fix. Solutions take time and are place specific as every destination is different. It is not a top-down strategic approach. It only works by asking and empowering the host community. Local knowledge and support is key. Being able to tap into local skills and assets is vital for building a sustainable future. Supporting communities to find and manage change through collaborative working practices, where all sectors come together, to enable and support the community, from the ground up. Collectively it builds a better infrastructure to support the local assets to thrive. Through engaging the business sector, the community and visitors alike to support the prosperity and well-being of people, place and planet and works towards creating a local, collaborative destination management plan for each specific destination which is grassroots driven and serves the community.

Cynefin is a metaphor for people and place and weaves community, well-being and business together. It is concerned with sustainability, and has the ability to act as an umbrella to host environmental, social and economic interest together. Cynefin is symbiotic because as much as Cynefin is about our place, our habitat, the land that holds us and feeds us,it’s about our impact on the land too. It can teach us about climate change and the resources we need to live. As well as the connections we make and the social interactions, the tapestry of life we weave into our community. If this place is our weft and we are the weave, then cynefin is the blanket that is formed by the union of people and place. Each person, and each place – urban and rural, has their own unique version, but collectively the bigger picture is made like graffiti on a subway wall or the sheep tracks on the hillside. It is our language, our culture, our heritage, our identity, our belonging, our people, our place – therefore no one owns it, we all share it. In St Davids we have ‘Cynefin Dewi’, but in Llanrhian you could have Cynefin Llanrhian, Cynefin Solvach……and so on………..

This grassroots initiative is also supported by national policy and strategy and can be underpinned directly by the New Curriculum for Wales putting schools and young people at its core. Cynefin ticks every box by linking to every segment of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act. Cynefin can be used as a holistic approach for community engagement to all the well-being goals: Encouraging a prosperous, resilient, healthy, equal and cohesive community with a vibrant culture and language and a globally responsible outlook.”

Come and stay with us at Galwad y Mor and meet other like-minded people, help to regenerate not only your own well-being, but that of our community, of our people, place and planet. Make friends and fall in love with the St Davids Peninsula.