Spending £2.5 million on a public right-of-way might sound a lot in times of cutbacks, but the South West Coast Path is no ordinary trail.

In financial terms alone it brings in around £222 million a year to the region's economy, which is one of the reasons it has attracted a new tranche of public funding.

The 630-mile long rightof-way has been awarded £2.1 million in European grant aid through the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) to "improve the visitor experience" – the rest will be raised from private sources.

It's one of six projects in the region to share a total grant worth more than £14m, all of which have a common agenda – to make the most of the region's landscape and features as part of a sustainable rural tourism theme.

The newly unveiled "Unlocking Our Coastal Heritage" project will be led by the South West Coast Path (SWCP) team and will see a series of investments aimed at "conserving, enhancing and interpreting" the trail.

The three-year project will also oversee work on 30 nationally important historic and archaeological sites on or near the coast path.

The scheme will also aim to improve information provided about the environmental, historic, cultural and natural features on sections of the path.

The work will be done in partnership with the National Trust, which owns much of the coastal land covered by the path, and with local highway authorities.

"Key to this project's success will be closer working with the tourism sector, so that visitors are made more aware of what the coast path gives access to," said a spokesman for the SWCP team. "By encouraging links with private investors to raise a total fund of £2.5 million, it intends to improve the overall experience at specific tourism businesses along the coast path."

The region's most recent visitor survey found that the coast and countryside are the main reasons people visit the Westcountry. South West Tourism's 2009 visitor survey cites walking as the most popular activity (according to 37 per cent of respondents), while a visit to the beach or coast came second (18 per cent).

"Combining the two, the South West Coast Path is the jewel in the region's crown," said the spokesman.

Mike Johns, programme manager for the South West RDA, the organisation responsible for delivering RDPE investments in the region, said: "This project has the potential to bring significant benefits to rural economies and to visitors, without damaging the environment that they have come to enjoy."

Work on the new projects will begin over the next couple of months, according to Mark Owen, who is national trail officer for the path. He said: "This one-off investment is a great opportunity to boost the region's rural economy with a particular focus on the less populated sites."

One of the first improvements will be at Watermouth Cove in North Devon, where walkers presently have to traverse a section of road when the tide is in.

There will be another major investment at the Axmouth Undercliffs near Seaton, to improve access and create a circular walk in an area that has very few approach roads.

In Cornwall projects will include re-routing the coast path near Charlestown. In 2007, cliff falls forced the path inland – the work will once again link walkers with the town's facilities and services.

One of the key heritage sites to benefit will be at Carne Beacon, near Veryan, where local legend has it that a 6th-century Cornish king is buried alongside his silver boat with golden oars. There'll also be improvements at nearby Veryan Castle. Other projects include improvement to the World Heritage mining sites, inland waterways, cycle and multi-use trails.