Fieldtrip!

So today I went on a fieldtrip with my Impacts of Tourism class. We left at 9:30 and went to a future site of a proposed "Holiday Village". Holiday is basically the UK equivalent of a vacation. This would be a private upscale resort. It would have a private village for guests only, and then two public centers, and waterpark, and a sports facility. The website is here http://www.bluestonewales.com/
We had the head of Marketing talk to us. As of right now they are in legal battles. (Here is the environmental science section of his blog) This is such a big deal economically and environmentally. There plan has the village being built partially in a national park. A brief history on UK national parks. The parks are all privatly owned, they are just designated as parks. So the people that live there, still can, they just can't change anything, however, it is agricultural, they can still use it as such. There proposed site would be building on fields on the edge of the park, leaving the trees, and exisisting flora. I asked, of course, if environmental studies have been done which of course there had. Entimologists and the EPA equivalent, said the area is ecologically dead. This makes since considering it has been in agriculture probably longer then the US has been a country. This being said, there are friends of the National Parks, the National Parks approved the site plan, and thinks it a good idea, but there "friends" that are in no way associated with the Parks dissagree. They have lots of lobbying power and it has gotten very political. From an economic aspect this would bring many year round jobs, almost 600. This is very different because the main job market is 6 months because tourism, the main source of income, is only popular during the fair whether months. This is only because the areas of interest are not geared for year round. In their planning, which has been being thought up for almost 10 years, they plan to incorporate local foods, venders, and many other aspects of the Welsch countryside. In the end being able to promote it as being "from wales entirely". It is a very interesting well thought out plan. I would love to do this kind of work later in life. I find it very interesting.