Handover of the certificate for LQT Day Walk – Creekvalley Duinengordel
How did the Hoge Kempen National Park management experience the certification process?
The Hoge Kempen National Park (12800ha) was founded in 2006. Since 2007 we developed more than 450km of hiking trails in the northeastern part of Belgium (100km east of Brussels). More than 100 individual trails in round loops were signposted with color marks in both directions offering a great variation in length, difficulty and natural and cultural attractions.
In 2020-2022 we developed the ‘Hoge Kempen National Park Trail’ (110km) and used the process of the ERA-Long Distance Trails, Best of Europe to improve the trail in quality and prepared an assessment to receive the quality label. Since December 2022 the Hoge Kempen National Park Trail has been one of the best long-distance trails in Europe.
In 2023, with the support of Visit Flanders, we also selected 15 ‘Day Walks’ out of 100 to go for the process of ‘Leading Quality, Day Walks’. This is to improve the quality of the trails for hikers. Not only in nature and cultural experience but also in services. In December 2023 our certification process for the Day Walks started with a course to become a ‘trail scout’, led by 2 experts of the ERA.
After the course, we checked our 15 selected Day Walks on the quality criteria, using the toolbox released by the ERA. When the inventarisation work was finished, 10 Day Walks reached the quality criteria. An assessment for these 10 trails was assigned to the ERA. In the next step of the process, the inspectors of the ERA came to Belgium and checked the quality of our 10 candidate Day Walks during an inspection week from 26 until 30 August 2024.
After the inspection week, we received an inspection report for all the 10-Day Walks with remarks that have to be solved before the label can be received. Next to remarks that must be solved also strongly recommended remarks were made to improve the quality of the Day Walks even more.
The process was not only valuable for obtaining the quality label itself. The advice of the ERA experts during the process really made the difference in the development of the Hoge Kempen Top Quality Day Walks.
For our National Park, this is more than just a label. It is also a management tool to focus on the best trails in the park and use it for maintenance priorities in the hiking network, visitor management (to spread visitors over subareas in the park) and focus on targeted promotion.
Jeroen Gilissen,
Projectplanner for the National Park Hoge Kempen