Exciting new ‘Celtic Routes’ tourism project takes shape

Representatives from over 40 businesses and organisations from Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire have come together to find out how they can be part of an exciting new tourism project, ‘Celtic Routes’.

Celtic Routes is a partnership project between Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire County Councils and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority in Wales and Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford County Councils in Ireland.

The €1.99m project, led by Carmarthenshire County Council, is part funded by the Ireland Wales Cooperation programme (2014-2020).

Cllr Peter Hughes, Carmarthenshire County Council’s Executive Board Member for Culture, Sport and Tourism, said: “The Celtic Routes project aims to persuade visitors driving through each of the partner destinations who are en-route to more established destinations to stop and spend time exploring each area and visit time and time again.

“Opportunities to boost the local economies of each area are at the forefront of the project’s activity.”

Activity to date has been informed by customer research and workshops including an audit of each destination’s natural and cultural assets and market research to gather consumer intelligence on visitor perception and the expectations of the identified target markets.

The Celtic Routes brand has been developed encompassing Celtic heritage, people, stories and landscape.

A website – celticroutes.wales / celticroutes.irish – is under development and a tailored marketing campaign will follow.

“The next step is to hold to a series of workshops to identify opportunities for stakeholders to get involved in the project,” said Cllr Hughes Griffiths. “This will be followed by learning journeys in Ireland and Wales providing businesses on either side of the Irish Sea an opportunity to learn and share best practice.”

For further information email marketing@carmarthenshire.gov.uk