Celtic Routes Strategic Marketing Plan & Delivery

Descriptions

A cross-Irish Sea set of partners including Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford County Councils and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority have formed a partnership called “Celtic Routes” to deliver a tourism heritage project that will boost visitor numbers and spend.Coastal communities in Wales (Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, and Pembrokeshire) and in Ireland (Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow) are unknown to a high % of tourists transiting the major arterial roads between entry points and the more well-known, ‘tourism honeypots’ beyond the target area. These locations on either side of the Irish Sea are characterised to be transiting trails and share several characteristics that present both challenges and opportunities for economic development.The Celtic Routes project has been developed to address the above by combining the natural, cultural and heritage assets in Ireland and Wales to increase visitor numbers (both day visitors and overnight) to the benefit of the economy in both Ireland and Wales. The project aims to harness the collective strengths of the regions, maximising visitor spend and income retention to the local economies, improving customer satisfaction to encourage longer and repeat visits (both day and overnight) and increase levels of positive recommendation. Whilst already successful tourism destinations in their own right, the forming of this partnership is seen as a key new marketing opportunity to convert this potential tourism audience into new and repeat tourists.The Partnership is currently at the point where it is seeking to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced contractor to develop a strategic marketing plan and associated delivery to support the delivery of the Celtic Routes project.The contract is partly funded via the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme 2014-2020. The contract is being co-ordinated by Carmarthenshire County Council, as lead authority for the project in association with the project partners.