- The behind the project is about using the story of a dead community to create a future for a surviving island community. To ensure that people see Uig as an important cultural landscape it is important to focus on that strand of the St Kilda narrative. is no other visitor attraction that tells such a unique cultural story as this one can about the people of St Kilda and the Hebrides. The story of the people is so intertwined that the end result is that the Centre will inevitably explain the site’s natural OUV and share its values, but in a secondary manner, around the core narrative of the people’s lives in the landscape. The core narrative of the site is this long history of human settlement and this unique human experience at the ‘edge of the world’… If you try to do ‘nature’ and ‘human’ stories at same time you will dilute your storytelling… and seem like other places, many of which do pure ‘nature’ stories. Every story told needs to start with these people and their lives… Because everyone can identify with a human story like this, it provides a point of entry for people from around the world to imagine themselves in the shoes of the islanders. Through that the project can explore a range of issues with strong contemporary resonance: Settlement Survival in a tough environment Changing relationships with natural world Living within environmental constraints Coping with isolation Communities shaped by their environment Contact with the wider world Pressures for change/Modernization Adapting to change Innovation Disease Decline
The seabird experience at St Kilda/stacs is unlikely to be matched The archaeology and village of St Kilda is remarkable to be among The specific story of the people of St Kilda will always be experienced most authentically on the island There are, in short, things that any keen student of St Kilda will want to experience first hand by visiting the island. This project would do well not to try and replace or recreate those things – better, I believe, to explain them or offer alternative experiences of them on similar themes, or to focus on what this site and project can do that are unique or distinctive. But are things that the St Kilda Centre can do which do not exist on St Kilda. These things tend to revolve around creating an experience/performance based on key archive items and displays. The St Kilda Centre is not about replicating the island experience. It is about creating a new remote access experience that tells the stories, and offers a performance that cannot be had on St Kilda. The Centre should make people understand and appreciate the island and to want to go someday, in a responsible and sustainable manner. Aspirations – The 14 things stakeholders are talking about I began this commission with extensive discussions with stakeholders to clarify what the different elements were for the project. The following elements emerged from those discussions: - Exhibition/Storytelling space - The St Kilda remote interpretation centre - World-class digital storytelling facilities - Remote access wildlife/seascape/marine viewing - Satellite teaching spaces/classrooms/study pods/studios - Research facilities – on key issues relating to periphery and St Kilda - Archive facilities for St and the landscape of Lewis - Iconic new building in unique location - Cliff experience/walkways
Tourism strategic context The St Kilda Centre needs to be considered carefully in its tourism context. It will not exist in isolation, but will be part of an existing destination. Best practice in tourism management around the world is now focused on destinations, not sites, for the simple reason that tourism is wider than a single site or attraction, and communicating with visitors or shaping their experience requires stakeholders to work collaboratively at a destination scale. In the next phase of the project the St Kilda Centre needs to be particularly sophisticated in its relationships with the tourism sector, and to think about its role as a flagship part of a destination. The Outer Hebrides is the destination used currently, and it has an existing vision to achieve by 2020: “To be a destination of choice for a world class experience on and diverse chain of inter-connected islands on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean offering a vibrant activity, food, music, art, craft and Gaelic culture in an outstanding environmental setting and appealing to those who are seeking peace and tranquility and those looking for active adventure with a taste for a different way of life”. The mission for the Destination Management Partnership (DMO) is as follows: “To harness and focus the passion, energy and drive on the islands to do what we do better and by turning more of our unique, natural and cultural assets into high quality authentic experiences that will grow tourism sustainably - and in so doing help stimulate population growth and enhance economic performance.” The aim being: “To grow tourism in The Outer Hebrides from £53m to £64m-£67m by 2020 by increasing transport capacity/integration, lengthening the season, offering additional authentic experiences and appealing
Heritage credentials. They also expect to find a destination that cares about conserving its Outstanding Universal Value. Research like that carried out by Visit Britain has repeatedly highlighted that high value visitors want to experience the ‘authentic’, to be immersed in the local culture, and to have a series of unique placed-related cultural experiences. It should also be noted that ‘cultural tourism’ is the fastest growing type of tourism in the developed world with 40% of European visitors now fitting that category. Cultural visitors are widely regarded as amongst the highest spending visitors in the tourism marketplace; being prepared to travel further, stay longer, spend more, and to visit a wider range of activities, and to visit places out of the traditional season if the historic narrative is strong enough. The quid pro quo is that they expect quality levels that are high. Much of the growth in the international tourism market in the next 20 years will be in new markets where brand recognition for many traditional destinations will be very low or non-existent. Many established British tourism destinations, probably including the Hebrides, have limited or no profile in the emerging markets like China and India. International cultural tourists (and World Heritage tourists in particular) visitors want to visit the world’s extraordinary ‘must see’ places. The Heritage and UNESCO brands are growing in value rapidly in the tourism marketplace as a kind of indicator of exceptionalism – the smart world heritage sites are utilizing this emerging brand to drive footfall. The desire to access some of the most difficult to ‘must see’ places is only likely to grow in the next few decades. The less accessible places are, the more prestigious and desirable visiting them becomes. St has a mystique that has vast appeal – The Outer Hebrides rightly recognizes that this is perhaps its biggest untapped story, and that the story will always exceed the ability to access it.