By Catia Rebelo
If we asked you to describe the place where you live and how you feel about it, what would you tell others? What is special about your place? We asked the people of the communities of Llangorse and Bwlch in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, what they would tell visitors about their area?
Are you curious to know what they have shared with us? Watch the video to find out!
Place Ambassadors project
This documentary is the result of an academic intervention that aimed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of introducing and or strengthening civic participation in tourism and branding planning, and part of Place Ambassadors project. This intervention seeks to engage and give voice to 10 members of the group Discover LLangorse & Bwlch, who is a bottom-up association that intends to develop and promote tourism in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales.
For this end, an innovative and collaborative visual methodology that merged different methods such as video-taped interviews, video elicitation techniques and a focus group was developed. Via these methods the group was invited to reflect on the various characteristics that make up LLangorse and Blwch villages, as well as on the socio-cultural connections of each individual with these same places.
This exercise allowed them to claim decision-making power and take responsibility for their territory by sharing their values and narratives that should be the basis of any tourism and branding initiative. Indeed, they played their role as Place Ambassadors by proudly sharing with us their visions, stories and feelings about their places.
This is a twin-documentary of Sensed Place, which can be watched here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n4lhVs66ZM.