Celtic routes connection can link Wales and Ireland
THE RIVERSIDE Park Hotel in Enniscorthy was the venue for a packed workshop organised to showcase the potential for Wexford of an Ireland Wales Interreg EU initiative called Celtic Routes.
The Celtic Routes project is specifically aimed at three Irish counties - Wexford, Waterford and Wicklow – along with their counterparts in the Welsh areas of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
One of the main aims of the project is to encourage visitors to explore new areas of Wales and Ireland while en route to their planned final destination.
Speaking to this newspaper the project coordinator Oonagh Messette, who organised the workshop, said it’s a ‘tight collaboration between the three local authorities in the sunny south east of Ireland’.
She also highlighted that because the project is an Ireland-Wales co-funded initiative the local authorities here are working closely with their three Welsh counterparts.
During the workshop a brief outline was given from representatives of the three Irish local authorities involved as to what their plans are for the next few years.
The Southern Regional Assembly (SRA) highlighted where the Regional Economic Spatial Strategy (RESS) is concentrating on with regard to tourism and attention was also focused on accessibility.
The attendees were given an update on Ireland’s Ancient East initiative from representatives of Failte Ireland while the final presentation was based around market research carried out relative to the proposed routes involved.
Ms Messette said one principal aims of the project is converting ‘potential’ visitors transiting through the three counties into ‘staying’ visitors.
Another aim is to increase sustainable economic developments by maximising visitor spend, income retention, and adding value to the combined tourism offerings within the region.
Ms Messette said a tailored marketing and promotional campaign for visitors and tourism providers will be developed with the support of the three Irish local authorities and the next phase of the project will be to develop branding and it’s hoped the overall project will be able to link in with existing tourism attractions throughout the three counties.
‘The branding will be developed between the two countries and we will be developing a website and apps and compiling appropriate content,’ she said.
‘We hope to have access to different tourism sites and images because they are already there so it makes sense,’ she added.
A tailored marketing campaign around shared identities between the two countries will also be developed imminently.
According to figures presented to those in attendance at the workshop there were 637,000 domestic visitors to Wexford in 2016 and they generated €131.8m for the economy while UK visitors to the county amounted to 134,000 - generating tourism revenue of €32m.
Figures were also presented in relation to the number of visitors to Wexford for the same time period from Europe (58,000), the USA (33,000) and other countries (13,000) and they respectively generated tourism revenue of €10m, €12m and €6m.
Interreg is the European Territorial Co-Operation Programme and is often referred to as the Ireland-Wales Fund.
Wexford County Council is project’s lead Irish partner.