Tourism Providers Training Success Promises Culture Boost

A cluster of twenty Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) tourism providers from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council have successfully completed the first tier of a Tourism Training Programme. Tier one of the training, funded through the Atlantic CultureScape project, involved four masterclasses that will help tourism providers on their journey to creating high quality ICH Visitor Experiences.

 

The Tiered Tourism Training Programme for ICH tourism providers launched in October 2020 and is being delivered by Runda Travel Ltd. Masterclass topics covered included; Understanding and Integrating Intangible Cultural Heritage into tourism Planning and Experiences, ICH Marketing Opportunities, Delivery of Quality ICH customer Experiences and Production of Promotional Material for ICH Experiences. 

 

All twenty of the ICH providers now move on to Tier Two which will involve mentoring and extra support based on each of their individual business needs. Following that, Tier Three will include comprehensive market focused testing of each evolved ICH experience before providers can move onto launching their sellable ICH Experiences later in 2021.

 

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Laura Devlin said, “This emerging collection of ICH Experiences from our cluster of local ICH providers showcase our treasured living culture. The Training Programme ensures each provider has the skills and knowledge to create an industry ready experience which will help boost sustainable tourism locally and across the Atlantic Area as part of the Atlantic CultureScape project.”

 

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience Collection includes:

1. Catch & Cook - catching local fish and cooking using traditional methods

2. Traditional Irish Dancing

3. Gaelic Games including the UNESCO designated hurling

4. Stained Glass Art experience

5. UNESCO designated Irish Harp experience

6. UNESCO Uilleann music experience

7. Irish Lace making experience 

8. Boleying; turf butter and wild goat's mountain experience

9. Wood turning using traditional methods experience

10. Poteen Distillery experience

11. Sean Nos Ballad singing experience

12. Stone wall building & sheepdog experience

13. Traditional soda breadmaking experience

14. Traditional blacksmithing experience

15. St Patricks Camino way experience

16. Spinning & knitting experience

17. Irish language experience

18. Foraging Strangford lough experience

19. Ancient poets and poetry writing experience

20. St Patrick based performance written by local playwright.

 

The Training Programme and development of ICH Experiences are being funding through the Atlantic CultureScape project which is co-financed by the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme through the European Regional Development Fund.