Ethnic minorities don't visit the countryside?

[tatt]

"although about 10% of the population is of an ethnic minority background, only about 1% of visitors to National Parks are from ethnic minorities." from
www.mosaicnationalparks.org/

Anyone from an ethnic minority have a view on why not?

Fair enough but have people no initiative?

"although about 10% of the population is of an ethnic minority background, only about 1% of visitors to National Parks are from ethnic minorities."

I'm just wondering how people find out statitics like this??

Sure sign of public sector workers with fuck all to do.

Just out of curiousity, what percentage of the indigenous population go the park or are there not statitics for this?

This reminds me of something in the news a couple of years ago. There used to be some sort of free, guided walking service available in the Lakes. However everyone that was using it was white and middle class and apparantly the fundign was stopped as there weren't enough ethniv minority or economically disadvantaged people using the service.

Ha Ha,

My parents are Asian immigrants who came over in early 1950's. When they were courting in the mid 60's they went all over-eg: Lake District, stately homes, museums cathedrals and so forth. They must have stood out a mile.

There are loads of black and white photos of my mum in her sari, stood in front of some country pile, mountain or whatever, with her bag beside her-no doubt full of onion bhajis, samosas plus the all important thermos of tea.

When DB and I were children, every Sunday we went somewhere different with them- to the point that my mum had a folder, with all the routes to get to whatever place, in case we went again!

Im sure it's where I developed my love of history- i never weekended as a child in the 'modern world'.

DP is as WASP as you can get and hasn't been to half the places I've been to as his family just didn't do that kind of thing(is one of 7 children, so would have been a bit of a mission, back in the day).

Sorry, haven't actually answered OP's question, but just thought I'd tell you my experiences.

My parents are Asian immigrants who came over in early 1950's. When they were courting in the mid 60's they went all over-eg: Lake District, stately homes, museums cathedrals and so forth. They must have stood out a mile.

There are loads of black and white photos of my mum in her sari, stood in front of some country pile, mountain or whatever, with her bag beside her-no doubt full of onion bhajis, samosas plus the all important thermos of tea.

When DB and I were children, every Sunday we went somewhere different with them- to the point that my mum had a folder, with all the routes to get to whatever place, in case we went again!

Im sure it's where I developed my love of history- i never weekended as a child in the 'modern world'.

DP is as WASP as you can get and hasn't been to half the places I've been to as his family just didn't do that kind of thing(is one of 7 children, so would have been a bit of a mission, back in the day).

Sorry, haven't actually answered OP's question, but just thought I'd tell you my experiences.

Stripeynickerspotty - What a shame and how strange to withdraw for those reasons??

Perhaps if the 'powers that be' saw people for people, they could have kept the scheme up and running for anyone who wanted to go.

Oops, computer playing up, didn't meant to post twice.

i suspect that hey are majorly frequently by white middle class

which suggests a cultural thng which doesn't pertain only to ethnic minorities.

i mean what to ethnic minority MC peeps do with their fee time - and as someone rightly suggested at the beginning of this thread - why lump the whole non white world under one umbrella.

so back to culture, although [as edam said] they were created for the WC, i can't say that i consider walking up and down bloody mountains and trails a wc pasttime - i mean that means less pub time

as a kid i was took to wales A LOT - i lived there for a short time when i was 3.

we owned a caravan nr snowdonia. all the fucking time i was up a pissing hill with an adult saying "ahhhhh little custy...just look at that view"

VIEW! i wanted to be with my mates pissing view

i can concur with this from my own exp. my father is se asian 1st gen immigrant. my mother E european 2nd gen.

we didn't do the exploring countryside thing.

i've married wasp dh. we do it with ds.

im not sure about the have iniative thing

when we visit a town or city we can find somewhere that serves halal food, or veggie with no alcohol and no cross contamination with meat but it isnt easy in the 'country' (and other 'ethnic' friends would have totally diff dietry req from strict kosher to vegan)

we have tried and done well, we went to a place near Hastings and found a place in Eastbourne

but on other trips you find yourself eating mcdonalds for 2 days and that aint really a holiday is it?

ys you could put more effort in but there gets a point where you think sod the time and money doing it so go abroad or stay local

so maybe if this charity is set up it could provide a guide book with places of interest which would help with these things, like the 'good ale pubs guide' with specific info for specific groups that could benefit the businesses involved providing the service but that are small and hard to find

Great image, you can't!

You should see dh, me and the kids attempting trips out in rural Bangladesh.
It usually ends up with about 300 people following (literally) our every move. Not that I am so interesting, I hasten to add, just that where he works there are no white folk.

Visiting a Colonial cemetery in the far North ended up with the entire perimeter wall lined up with curious faces. Not fun, especially as was desperate for a quick wee.

I come from a was (no 'p') family, and spent my childhood in the pouring rain, up hills, eating minimal packed lunches of salad cream and lettuce, amid bracken and rocks and no sign of human habitiation. I am trying to pass this on to DS, which involves inducting DP.

Based on my close obersvation of DP's family, The Big Family Picnic is a huge Asian tradition, and a favourite destination would be the seaside or a nice beauty spot - but not too remote and wild, because why would you? You would not wish to encounter mud or discomfort for fun, why ever would you? Also, yes, the notion of getting away from it all, or solitude would be looked upon as a sign of madness by most of DP's family. AND you have to take everyone, from newborn to v pg to very ancient and fragile - so great walks up hill or over difficult ground, and carrying enough food to furnish a State Banquet (again skimping on food is NOT a sign of leisure or relaxation) are out of the question.

DP has only this year agreed to acquire anything like suitable walking boots, and his mother would not dream of donning anything other than sparkly flipflops.

And DP has been gawped at a little in the Lake istrict and the N Norfolk coast. But less so every year - it is changing.

I don't feel that visiting National Parks should be compulsory, or that various communities should be compelled to demonstrate grit in the sole of their boots as some sort of Citizenship Test!

Apparanty football, or cricket, or perhaps tennis is the national sport in this country. I have no wish to attend any of them!

We spend most weekends walking in the chilterns where we live and where DH is the only black face for at least 30 miles radius.

Has never occured to us that this is unusual, but thinking about it, although we don't know any other black people, we know quite a few Asians, none of whom are interested in walking. They all seem to spend their weekends visiting their families who all seem to live v. close by.

Interesting thread, this.

Oops not 30 miles, more like 7 or 8.

When we livedi n Kurdistan, family outings were something else.
Barbequeues (mangal), enormous samovars, half the living room, vast piles of sticky baklava went everywhere, usually lugged by headscarved ancients, while the young guns strutted aroun in tight jeans and puffed on fags.

I caused an enormous scene once by a lake when I refused to get on a boat bound for an island which, thanks to above, sat about 15 cm above waterline.

Insisted on hiring one just for us (same size as the one which had about 60 peopel on it) and refused to get on util the daptain dug out lifejackets for the four of us which had never seen the light of day.

dh has lots of ethnic minorities working for him. i know qute a few of them and none have been out of london. i showed one lady, from equador, some holiday snaps from around the uk and she was amazed.
i met her again and she said after i had shown her they had booked a caravan in cornwall and had the best time ever.

This is just such a non-issue. So Bangladeshi's don't like visiting National Parks? Well nor do a whole host of other nationalities with a variety of skin colours. What does it matter? Why not a campaign to get ethnic minoritoes to eat hob nobs and drink Horlicks if you're going to go down that route.

Chiming in re rural definition of "other": neighbour in small Suffolk village fills me in on local property sale; me: was it someone local who bought it? Neighbour: oh no! someone from X (1.5 miles distant).

Couple of years ago I worked at a country park with a big castle. We had bus tours visiting from all sorts of places. Lots of organised tours with people visiting from france/ germany/ japan etc. Hundreds of buses full of UK OAPs

and quite a lot of buses with groups from various organisiations visitng from big cities have to say these did include groups that consisted of mainly ethnic minorities too. Wether they visited the castle only or had a wander in the park I don't know but they always had great looking picnics and would spread our the rugs and settle down for a couple of hours for lunch, while the kids played in open areas or park. Much more fun than dragging the kids round the woodland walks.

i don't really know how to respond to this. i'd want to see other statistics tbh such as what proportion of white working class people visit the countryside, or working class people of any ethnicity who live in urban areas.

fwiw i'm an ethnic minority who visits the countryside (seems such an odd thing to say or declare) but then i used to live in the lakes. i now live in a city. my dad is similar. but again, he used to live in the lakes, he briefly moved to the french countryside and is now back to the lakes.

dh's family otoh, white working class city dwellers, wouldn't consider a day out to the countryside. a day out to them is normally to a market town within 2 miles of where they live.

Just to add to the debate. I'm mixed race until Ds come along I was a DoE leader and intend to become a Beaver leader next year. Taken lots of kids from inner city to the countryside some love it some hate it. At least I gave them an opportunity to see.
Shocked at a Asian , that country folk were all racist Sorry what a silly cow! I have had great times in Wales. One time a village adopted my Very big, very black Kenyan friend. We lost him at 8pm, didn't see him again until 1am when he rolled back to the mini-bus with his new friends

i know it's not meant to be funny, but i keep laughing at the title of this thread because rather than it being a question i'm imagining it as a really poor attempt at a derogatory stereotype being said by some stupid racist in a hush tone. you know like an elder bnp member giving out about multicultural soceity/"pc gone mad" and ending it with the unanswerable assertation "you know the other problem with ethnic minorities, they don't visit the countryside"