The Katla Geopark Destination Management Plan can be viewed on the issuu reader below

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Three workshops

This Destination Management Plan is the result of an extensive participatory planning process with contributions of many stakeholders from the geopark. These stakeholders include representatives of the municipalities and Southern region, planning representatives, (local) tour operators and tourism industries, local communities, inhabitants, land-owners, and representatives of the geopark and Vatnajökull National Park.

A full list with all participants can be found in the appendix of this report.

The process of developing the DMP was structured by organising three workshops with all participants. In the first workshop (April 5th 2017) we focused on the current state of tourism and landscape in the geopark. The second workshop (June 14th 2017) was about setting the direction for a long term vision for the DMP. During the third and last workshop (August 30th
2017) we developed an action plan and determined the required interventions within the geopark territory. Around these workshops site visits and excursions to all geosites were organised.

Online survey

During the workshops we discovered that the input from local inhabitants and tourism industries was still rather small. Therefore it was decided to start an online survey to be able to offer a accessible and easy way to include more different opinion from local stakeholders in the planning process. The survey was made by the design team in collaboration with the geopark and was sent to local stakeholders via the municipalities. In total 78 responses were received. This makes the results statistically not representative. However, the responses gave an impression of people’s attitude towards tourism and nature in the geopark. It shows great analogy with the input as gathered during the workshops. Therefore the results of the survey are
reflected upon in this DMP as well.

All input gathered during the workshops, excursions and the survey was used to develop the DMP including the long term vision and action plan.