Managing and enhancing the visitor experience in botanic and historic gardens


Our gardens are important visitor attractions, both for our tourism industry and also to our local community and businesses.  The potential for increased visitor numbers, and all year round opening needs site staff and stakeholders to work together in order to balance our core aims and relevant legislation alongside our visitor offer.  How we reach, manage and engage with our visitors successfully to fully realise the values of our historic landscapes and help them enjoy and learn from our plant collections are not easy tasks.

This conference considered and discussed:

  • How we drive the visitor experience using our historic landscapes, horticulture and plant collections
  • How we measure how well we are doing and how we benchmark presentation standards
  • Balancing conservation of the historic fabric with increased needs and expectations of garden visitors
  • How we can identify and work with external organisations and partners
  • Visitor facilities – the loo and the brew
  • Visitor engagement on and off site
  • A range of case studies across heritage and botanic gardens
  • Opportunities to network and share experiences