Tomorrow's Visitors Kieran Swail

In this episode, I talk to Colin O’Neill, Chief Executive of Colin Glen Trust and Leisure. Colin has been in this role for 10 years. The Forest Park is situated on the Stewartstown Road in West Belfast. 10 minutes from the M1 connecting Dublin to Belfast.

The Forest Park is on a 200-acre site with many tourism amenities and facilities.

In the summer of 2021, the Trust will be opening Ireland's first Alpine coaster toboggan. Hear about this and many other new developments that are happening and longer terms plans.

In this episode, I talk to Ethan Loughrey, Marketing Officer with Outdoor Recreation NI on the growth of Mountain biking in Northern Ireland. We share our passion for mountain biking as a leisure and sporting activity. Show notes from the podcast are on www.tomorrowsvisitors.com

In this episode I reflect on the growth of glamping in Ireland reviewing some of the sites that I am familiar with and emerging, quirky glampsites all over Ireland.  I chat with Martina McKee of Explore 54 and we talk about how she has had to flip her business model, and her plans for 2021. 

In this podcast Alison talks about the importance of tourism being “future proofed” noting that “culture is the bedrock of the tourism experience.” In her role as Programme Manager, Alison is trying to help communities unravel the stories and “narrative” within their own community with a focus on putting “place making” before “place marketing” – we have all these layers of 100s and 100s of years of form and fabric that are in the towns of Ireland – North and South.

Alison talks about some of the Heritage Council’s recent initiatives like The Heritage Action Plan for Tipperary Town, a heritage led regeneration project focusing on the need to reuse and repurpose landmark and traditional buildings in the town centre.

The Heritage Council of Ireland has a diverse range of interesting publications which are worth checking out:

Adopt a monument Research Toolkit

Discover the Walled Towns of Ireland

Gardening for Biodiversity

Know your 5k

Youtube: Behind the Scenes -looking at The Medieval Town Walls of Athlone, Co Westmeath

In the first of the Tomorrow's Visitors Podcasts I am in conversation with John Fitzgerald, Chair of Ballyhoura Failte and proprietor of The Kennedy Rooms in Bruff, Co Limerick.  John was a Guest Speaker at the inaugural Cross Border Online Tourism Conference in April 2020 hosted by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce.

John qualified as an Engineer and he was employed by two large US companies which allowed him to travel the world and shaped his outlook on life and business.  In this interview, we chat about many aspects of life and tourism, commencing with why visitors come to the Ballyhoura Region, which John refers to as part of Ireland's Hidden Heartlands.

John provides us with a fascinating insight into where he thinks tourism in Ireland is going and why the need to put "service back in to tourism" is so important. According to John, the challenge for visitors and tourism providers is to understand and address the "need to travel v the fear of travel" continuum - where do you sit as a business? Change is happening, so how can tourism providers respond?

John took over the former FCJ Convent in Bruff,  now the Kennedy Rooms over 5 years ago and has adapted the building to a major event space, film set and home to the NunsRoom, Ireland's first non-alcoholic bar! He shares his views on film tourism and how and why there is a need to be quirky - this will attract domestic and overseas visitors.  

John is committed to sustainable tourism and attracting visitors across the Island of Ireland to Ballyhoura and acknowledges that Staycations will be the focus for the region in the next 24 months.

Towards the end of the interview we chat about John's passion for horses - he is a former Amateur Jockey and a Licensed Racehorse Trainer of flat and national hunt horses at Little Orchard Stud and a frequent visitor to Limerick Racecourse.  

So, I think you will detect that I really enjoyed this conversation - John is a great Ambassador for Ballyhoura and the wider region - hoping to pack my bike and head down to see John in the early Autumn 2020.

One of the many takeaways from this podcast - "You have to be different - make service exceptional"