Students at Huddersfield University have provided a crop of suggestions for ways to help a 1,500-acre estate take advantage of tourism opportunities.

The BA (Hons) travel and tourism management students visited Farnley Estate in March on an information gathering exercise.

Following their visit, groups of students were given a different theme to work on – country park, events, accommodation, adventure and special interest.

Now the students have presented their findings to a panel, which included representatives from Farnley Estates and Dr Nick Hubbard, head of logistics, transport and tourism at the university.

“It was really interesting to see how the student’s perceived the estate and the type of activities they felt would work,” said Farnley Estates managing director Paul Sykes. “Some of the ideas were very surprising, such as a cat café. Apparently, it’s the latest craze in Japan!”

“Other ideas, such as a ski slope and Segway tracks, gave us a greater insight into the interests of younger people.

“We hope to investigate some of the ideas in greater detail as part of our 25-year plan,”

As well as a presentation, the students have submitted a 3,000 word report outlining their findings.

“It’s been fantastic for the students to have the opportunity to work on a live project in the Huddersfield area and they engaged with enormous amounts of enthusiasm,” said Dr Hubbard.

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