Associates

Andy McNab BA (Oxon) Dip TP MRTPI FTS

Andy has worked internationally on issues related to tourism and the environment and tourism and socio-economic development. In Yunnan, China, Andy led a five year technical assistance project designed to explore the inter-relationships between poverty and environmental change in this mountainous province characterised by exceptional scenery, ecological riches and many ethnic minorities. A specific strand of the work was an investigation into the role tourism could play in assisting poverty reduction. This included an assessment of the potential for green tourism and adventure tourism in the Chinese domestic market.

Andy has worked extensively in China and South East Asia. In Malaysia he led a study into the potential for tourism development at Tasek Bera. This is a remote wetland area of international importance (a RAMSAR site) with a small population including Orang Asli, Malaysia's aboriginal population. The study needed to balance the primary need for conservation with the Provincial Government's expectations of tourism potential and the need to work with the Orang Asli. The agreed plan has now been implemented. Andy has managed similar studies seeking to reconcile tourism development with resource conservation and socio-economic development in Barbados, Thailand and Vietnam.

Andy has also worked on tourism development strategies and resort development. He participated in an innovative study of tourism in Northern Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement. He has also investigated the potential for resort development in Saudi Arabia to meet growing domestic market demands.

Andy's early career was associated with rural tourism when working as a planner in the Lake District National Park, Tasmania and Dumfries and Galloway. Subsequently, as a consultant, he was involved in working for all the major conservation agencies in the UK concentrating on the inter-relationship of conservation and tourism development. He prepared tourism development strategies for areas as diverse as the North Pennines and Milton Keynes and advised on conservation strategies to underpin tourism in areas including Penwith, the Somerset Levels and popular mountain areas in Scotland.

Andy also has considerable experience on advising on the conservation and development of specific sites. He has advised on the opening up of the Sherborne Estate in Gloucestershire for the National Trust and on the potential for opening Edward James' "Surrealist" home in Sussex for SAVE . Andy has been involved in working with a range of private landowners and developers on tourism development. This has included the development of self-catering businesses, caravan sites, visitor centres, a farm park for the Cooperative and a garden park.

Andy spent seven years as an adviser to a major company seeking to build all-year-round holiday villages in the UK. He helped develop and implement the site selection process, managed the planning negotiations, appeared at planning enquiries as an expert witness, obtained planning consent for three sites and developed corporate environmental policies.

Andy has a degree in geography from the University of Oxford, a postgraduate diploma in town planning from Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) and is a Fellow of the Tourism Society. Following five years in government employment, Andy became a consultant and held senior management positions with Cobham Resource Consultants and then Scott Wilson for over 25 years. He took early retirement in 2010 and now operates as an individual consultant.

Key areas of expertise

Strategy and Action Planning; Green & Environmental Matters / Sustainability; Community consultation and involvement; and Rural and Urban Regeneration.