The sky's the limit

AS REPORTED in narrowboatworld, the numbers of visitors fell from 15 millions down to 10 millions when the Trust was first formed, writes Mick Fitzgibbons.

But Phoenix like, from the wreckage of the bonfire of the quangos (The well known fire sale organised by the government just after the meltdown of the world banking system) back then the new Trust was being honest in publishing the number of visitors to its waterways, stating at the time that the annual number of visitors was down from 13 millions to 10 millions. It was in an economic downturn, so a reduction in numbers is just what you would expect.

Floundering

Now things have changed for the 'Faux Phoenix,' unable to reach targets for 'volunteers' and still unable to reach targets for 'friends'; floundering in the belief that the Waterways Partnerships are one day going to raise money, while meantime funding the perennial large black hole that is the Waterways Partnerships. As the Trust mandarins, with their childlike fingers presumably crossed behind their backs, are now reporting that they have bucked national trends with stratospheric increases in visitor numbers. In fact 'Stratospheric' is under-stating the case!

We should take the National Trust (NT) as a comparator; it has been around for 115 years. It has some broad similarities to CaRT with 742 miles of coastline to manage, in excess of 247,000 hectares of land, and with over 350 historic houses, gardens and parks. It also has ancient monuments and nature reserves that it maintains. The National Trust had only a paltry 20.4 million visitors. The NT has however 4.1 million members which brings in a minimum of £150 million and it also boasts a minimum of 60,000 volunteers. So the NT has about 20% of its regular visitors as members.

Contributing

So imagine if CaRT had the same sort of percentage of paying members. There is the rub, I have long said the CaRT should have a membership—Just think of all those millions of visitors who visit the towpath, who could actually be contributing members. A common belief amongst boaters is that the IWA would not be happy if the Trust was to have its own membership. The teddy would also be reaching stratospheric heights as it was launched out of the IWA cot. It would certainly create a big hit on the dwindling IWA membership numbers. So all those millions of pounds that could be collected as a membership subscription are currently going to waste. Vanity prevails once more.

One of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for continued government funding is the number of visitors attracted to the canals. To the boater it's just another target to be missed by the Trust, which now has a track record as they have missed so many already. But now some three years later the Trust tells us that the annual number of visitors has risen from the low point of 10 million to a new high of 360 millions! Increasing numbers at a rate of visitors at almost 10,000,000 a month over the three year period! Now the visitor figure is almost an extra 1,000,000 punters a day. Or 454 people to be found on every mile of CaRT managed Inland Waterway on every day of the year!

Stratospheric increases

Porcine avionics came to mind when I read about such stratospheric increases. It would seem that all are now fully refuelled and ready for the next launch. Figures of 500 million are being bandied about. But it's time to come down from the dizzying heights where the rarefied atmosphere is causing some 'light headed' claims to be made. Maybe we can even get some oxygen masks issued in the visitor counting directorate!

There are very obvious factors that will affect the day to day density of people on the towpath and therefore the visibility of visitor numbers: daylight -v- darkness or summer -v- winter, good weather -v- bad weather or weekday -v- weekend. If you give some thought, you will soon realise that the above factors will actually squeeze the visitor numbers into a much shorter time frame, during the day or the season of the year. What is very apparent from the back deck of our boat as we cruise around the inland waterways is that in the countryside walkers, cyclists and fishermen are very few in number. In the towns and cities the numbers do improve but there are still not enough people to be seen walking, jogging, cycling or fishing.

What is a visitor?

The dictionary describes visitor as a term for 'a person who comes to spend time with or stay with others, or spend time in a place. A visitor often stays some time, for social pleasure, for business or sightseeing.' Is someone who looks at a canal from the top deck of a bus a visitor? Is someone who walks over a bridge on their way to work a visitor in the accepted sense when compared to a person who comes to spend time with or stay with others, or spend time in a place? A visitor who is there for social pleasure, on business or just sightseeing.

What is important when conducting a survey is what are the key questions asked: how the questions are phrased, how the numbers are collated and how the representative sample is chosen. The other important factor is openness and transparency of the chosen method.