IN response to Tobias Ellwood's call for an iconic building to celebrate Bournemouth and put it on the tourism map.
Bournemouth already has an iconic and highly marketable environment. The best beaches, extraordinary surrounding natural beauty. The last thing Bournemouth needs is an iconic structure.
If you really want to put Bournemouth on the map, we need a wholesale, forward-thinking redevelopment plan for the town centre.
In combination with redeveloping the BIC and adjacent hotel site, which is currently being mooted, why not do away with the horrendous flyover and re-green the Bourne? A natural gateway to the sea.
As someone who has studied ecotourism marketing, I would suggest that Bournemouth looks to re-imagine the town with the next 50 years in mind, and stop looking backwards. Destinations are not solely marketed with buildings, which are a lazy way of engaging the public. Capturing a person’s imagination and desire to visit or relocate for business or pleasure is about the values created within the wider community.
My advice would be to make Bournemouth an iconic “future” city – car-free and carbon neutral. A sustainable place to live and work, with a well-planned public transport infrastructure and investment in renewable energy.
Revisit the offshore wind proposal instead of oil field development. Bournemouth could embrace the challenge of climate change, which is likely to have a disproportionate effect on our sea front town and surrounds, and invest in a plan which will both protect us from climate change and put us on the map for all the right reasons.
Future Bournemouth! If you want to know how to do it I have some ideas.
MARCUS CLARKE, Rushmere Road, Bournemouth
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