BY NUALA MCALOON
Destination North West, a ground-breaking two million euro tourism marketing project which markets the North West on a cross border basis, and includes County Fermanagh, is achieving significant success since it's inception just over two years ago.
Grant aid totalling 1.5million euro came through EU funding, 500,000 euro was provided by project partners, and an extra 600,000 euro was made available by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with the project for overseas marketing.
More than 300 tourism providers from Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim heard the news at an event in Letterkenny on Thursday last.
The conference was organised by Destination North West which, since it's launch in October 2005 has been widely accepted as having set an excellent template on how cross border regional tourism can work in the longer term, having fully integrated it's activities with the national tourism agencies.
Popular UTV broadcaster, Paul Clark, was master of ceremonies for the day, and the conference was addressed by, among others, the South's Education Minister, Mary Hanafin, by speakers from Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland, by Éanna Rowe, of Waterways Ireland, Howard Keery, Special EU Programmes Body and Martin Donnelly, Destination North West,,
Minister Hanafin said that in pooling the resources and skills of different organisations across this region, Destination North West would play an important role in building the number of tourists visiting this beautiful part of our island.
"The future is bright for tourism in this area', she predicted. " It is a top quality destination and this was particularly evident during the World Rally Championship last November. That event alone was viewed by around 800 million television viewers in 180 countries who saw some of the most scenic landscapes on the island including the lakelands of Sligo, Leitrim, Tyrone and Fermanagh and the spectacular Atlantic coast roads of Donegal.
"The decision to award a further round of the Rally in 2009 is a strong endorsement of the success of last year's event and is another reason why everyone involved in tourism in this region can look forward with confidence to working together in the years ahead."
Martin Donnelly, Destination North West Project Manager, said the project had achieved all it's main objectives.
"We set out to deliver strategic partnership development in the region, full engagement with the national agencies in our marketing activities, provide a platform for the private sector to engage with our project in marketing and of course, deliver increased visitor numbers to the region."
