How to use this report

This report is for individuals or organisations with an interest in the Peak District National Park. It has been produced to help people to understand the key characteristics of visiting trends within the National Park.

This report summarises a wealth of technical information and research. Anyone with a special interest in a particular theme or data topic can request supporting technical information by contacting the email address below.

The structure of the 2019 report is based around key questions relating to visitors within the Peak District National Park. The findings and insight will relate to a number of different studies and data, most of which will be referenced within the report. These are the most relevant and up to date findings and should be used above previous reports and data.

This report is not intended to make recommendations or any policy implications. However, there will be reference to areas where more data and insight would be beneficial.

Scope of the report

This report summarises data, reports and insight in to visitor & non-visitor information in the Peak District National Park to inform and support delivery of the National Park Management Plan, Development Plan, strategies and the Authority’s Corporate Strategy.

Wherever possible, data will relate to the area within the Peak District National Park boundary. However, this will not always be possible due to temporal and spatial constraints of all the studies and data available. A list of the sources of data can be found in the Appendix and will be referenced throughout the report.

Understanding tourism measures

The number of tourist visits to an area the size of a national park is difficult to measure and not easily quantified. Moreover, there is no standard method available for assessing visitor numbers to an area, which often leads to uncertainty in the variability of the reported visitor numbers. We cannot say with certainty the number of visitors who come to the National Park. Using the available surveys and data we have, we know likely visitor volume to range somewhere between 13 million [3] and 26 million [4] per annum.

In estimating overall volume and value, national parks use a model called STEAM (Scarborough Tourism Economic Assessment Model). STEAM is a tourism economic impact modelling process, which approaches the measurement of tourism from the bottom up, through its use of local supply side data and tourism performance and visitor data collection.

The STEAM model estimates that the total number of visitor days spent (or visitors spending over 3 hours) in the Peak District National Park and influence area is around 13.24m per annum. In contrast, a study commissioned by the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) in 1996 'Assessment of Visitor Numbers Report’ estimated in excess of 22-26 million tourist days each year. The significant difference in volume figures is due to the methodology of each study. The latter study includes any type of visitor and any length of stay. The Visitor Survey 2005 and 2015 surveys any visitor regardless of how long they visit the Peak District for. It showed a significant proportion of people making short trips into the Peak District of less than three hours what we call Leisure Day Visitors.