Today sees the closure of Celtic Routes, the Ireland Wales tourism project, and Gearóid Ryan of Hook Rural Tourism in Co Wexford is lamenting its loss.
“I suppose it’s something that happens quite often, doesn’t it.
“Governments come up with a fantastic initiative, and then it just dies and becomes a report somewhere. That seems a shame to me,” he says.
Celtic Routes launched in 2019 as one of several tourism initiatives under the Ireland-Wales Programme.
Aiming to cultivate links and boost tourism between counties Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow and Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigon in Wales, it saw €4m invested over four years.
Stakeholders say its promotional efforts showcased those six Irish and Welsh counties to a global audience of more than 300m people.
With no new funding to continue, however, the project officially comes to an end today.
“The Ireland-Wales fund is finished because of Brexit,” project officer Oonagh Messette says. “The UK and Wales are never going for it again… they can’t.
“Our partnership, our networks, our collaboration and our immense marketing and promotion power essentially comes to a close at the end… my job finishes at 5pm on Thursday evening.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Tourism confirmed: “Owing to the UK’s exit from the EU, there is currently no successor to this programme.”
Hook Lighthouse, Co Wexford. Photo: Celtic Routes
Celtic Routes initiatives included a website (celticroutes.irish), social media, a TV series, media trips and learning missions that brought small businesses together – with the aim of increasing visitor dwell time and turning the coastal counties from transit zones into touring sites.
“I had been to Wales before but I only ever passed through,” Mr Ryan of Hook Rural Tourism says. “I never really saw the similarities between Wexford, Waterford and Wicklow and the Welsh countryside.”
But networking trips brought that to life, he says, and Hook Rural Tourism has learned from similar challenges faced by counterparts across the sea. “Now I extol the virtues of Wales every time I speak to anybody at all,” he says.
The Ireland-Wales programme is managed by the Welsh Government and its partners in Ireland, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and the Southern Regional Assembly, the Department of Tourism spokesperson said. These have confirmed that it “was always a time limited programme”, it added.
Other projects under the programme included Ancient Connections, Ports Past and Present, and Portalis.
But Ms Messette says: “So much more can be done. We have 140 businesses that have availed of our marketing and publicity, and that’s all going to drop.”
If the Ireland-Wales partnership cannot be saved, keeping the collaboration between the three Irish counties “would be the next best option”, she adds.
Funding could build on its success, she says, reaching out to new European partners like Brittany and Normandy.
“If we collaborate, we can do much bigger and much better.”
Lismore, Co Waterford. Photo: Celtic Routes
Although it could be years before footfall and revenue directly linked to Celtic Routes can be measured, social media and other projects have put the brand before a global audience of 315 million, she says.
Some of these projects will continue running until the end of the year, as they have been pre-paid – opening the door to the scheme’s revival if another funding stream can be found.
“But we need to move before impetus is lost, because once the social media beast stops getting fed, that’s it, it rolls over and dies and is forgotten about.”
The Department of Tourism spokesperson said it is a policy priority “to put an increased focus on regional growth and seasonal extension” in Ireland.
“€3 million has been allocated to the Regional Access Fund this year to enable tactical partnerships and activities that will help to drive increases in visitors to the regions, amplifying the Ireland message overseas and supporting direct access,” they added.
“In the absence of a successor programme, the Minister has asked her officials to keep under review the potential for future collaborative tourism initiatives with Wales.”