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Tourism Providers training success promises culture boost

17 December 2020 | By Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

Image | Irish Lace Making

A cluster of twenty intangible cultural heritage (ICH) Tourism Providers from Newry, Mourne & Down District Councils area 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 the Tourism Providers on their journey to creating high quality ICH Visitor Experiences.

The Tiered Tourism Training Programme for ICH tourism providers launched in October 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.

Judith Boyle, Atlantic CultureScape Manager said;
“This emerging collection of ICH Experiences from our cluster of local ICH providers showcase Ulster’s 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.         

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