A Sense of Place

A Sense of Place is a classic interpretive planning handbook offering a clear, structured framework for planning, designing, and evaluating interpretation across landscapes, heritage sites, museums, and communities. Developed for the Tourism and Environment Initiative, it is widely used across the UK and beyond. The handbook provides practical tools for identifying themes, involving communities, choosing media, developing visitor-centred communication, and ensuring interpretation supports both tourism and conservation goals.

Contents Summary

Introduction – Interpretation as a bridge between heritage, tourism, and community values.

1: What Is Interpretation? – Core principles, themes, the role of emotion and insight, and the difference between interpretation and information.

2: Why Plan Interpretation? – Benefits of structured planning, plan types, and context-dependent approaches.

3: Types of Plans – Strategic vs detailed plans, integrating interpretation into wider initiatives, using consultants.

4: Working With Others – Collaboration with communities, agencies, and multi-stakeholder groups.

5: Building the Plan – Purpose, content, audiences, themes, methods, evaluation principles, involving communities.

6: Is It Working? – Evaluation techniques, sampling, indicators of impact.

7: Designing and Producing Interpretation – Communication theory, personal interpretation, outdoor panels, publications, multimedia, visitor centres, contractor management.