An international project bringing together Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford with colleagues in three Welsh local authorities was announced yesterday.
The Celtic Routes project aims to encourage visitors to explore new areas of South East Ireland and West Wales en route to their final tourist destination.
It hopes to transform less well-known areas from transit zones to new touring sites, increasing the time visitors spend in these regions and capitalising on the opportunities to boost local economies.
The project – which was launched recently in Wales – has been developed through customer research, trade events and workshops as well as cross border visits by businesses in Ireland and Wales to bring together expertise and ideas.
The objective is to increase the visitor appeal of the targeted areas, including through the development of new trails linking local culture, heritage and the natural environment.
Speaking at the launch of the project at the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy, Wicklow Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle said – “It gives me great pleasure to be the first to applaud the Celtic Routes Project and their varied consultants on the production of this fantastic promotional clip – and for the vast wealth of collateral that will be available from the Toolkit for all tourism bodies and businesses to use.”
The underlying aim of the Celtic Routes project was to convert potential visitors transiting through our cities into staying visitors.
Another objective was to increase sustainable economic developments by maximising visitor spend, income retention, adding value to the combined tourism offerings within the region through a tailored marketing and promotional campaign for both visitors and tourism providers, supported by the three Local Authorities.
The Celtic Routes project will run until December 2020.
