4 July 2016
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Fáilte Ireland has appointed over 350 business owners, managers and staff to become Wild Atlantic Way Champions across the coastal route, including over 13 from Cork.
The new ‘Champions’ all recently received an official certificate and specially commissioned badge to acknowledge their participation at special workshops for the scheme. The initiative seeks to empower local operators as they set out to ensure that visitors will stay just a little longer in an area, spend more and recommend the Wild Atlantic Way globally.
Explaining the importance of the Wild Atlantic Way Champions, Fáilte Ireland’s Fiona Monaghan, Head of the Wild Atlantic Way, emphasised:
“The Wild Atlantic Way Champions initiative seeks to harness the commitment and passion of local tourism operators and assist them to deliver the best possible visitor experience. Through a mixture of a warm welcome, a smile, real knowledge of their local area and a genuine interest in what visitors want, we believe our Champions can really help us maximize the potential of the route locally.”
Local champion, Kim McNamara, West Cork Model Railway Village, added:
“I found the idea of a welcome champion great, the Wild Atlantic Way project has helped to focus on much loved but unknown parts of the country through a joined up thinking in marketing which I haven’t seen before. I thoroughly recommend this programme to everyone and hope others will follow when new workshops are organised in the Autumn.”
Fáilte Ireland invited business owners, managers and staff to become a Wild Atlantic Way Champion earlier this year and the workshops were held all along the Wild Atlantic Way, including Cork. The response to the initiative has been extremely strong and more workshops – creating more champions – will be planned for later in the year.
