Plean Turasoireachta Béal Átha

ActiveMe Tourism Media and Heritage Services
Destination Béal Átha an Ghaorthaidh
• Ballingeary is where you can really immerse tourists in Irish Culture from ancient pagan trails to
pilgrim paths and from storytelling to poetry and music. Market the rich Irish Culture – music,
song, dance, poetry, story, people, place and welcome. Living history tourism where visitors
can experience real day to day rural living, food and other activities among communities in
splendid countryside
• Tourist experiencing and taking part in local and traditional Road Bowling and GAA
• Create short snappy videos not about business but about the destination and people. Although
at the cutting edge of interactive video marketing using your own computers camera and
microphone, the new personalised ‘Ikea’ video is fun way to help promote your destination and
also combine the promotion of your language. Without the costly elements, a similar style video
could be created to promote Ballingeary and the Irish Language together in a fun way. Visit
https://goo.gl/vTCfrM which is my own ‘Brian’ personal video from Ikea. Join Ikea Family for
your own personalised video.
• Invite a popular travel journalist to Ballingeary and in conjunctions with other businesses treat
them to all you can offer in return for media coverage of your destination.
• Build on the wonderful Casadh na Spríde community park, orchard, picnic area and garden.
Use this as an attraction to make people stop in the village, ‘the Perfect Picnic Spot in West
Cork’. Make sure everyone in the community is on board and sharing and promoting online and
on social media as much as they can. People power.
• Maps and guides to be clear, concise and contain high quality photos and easy to remember
fun facts
• Facebook groups for Ireland such as ‘Ireland Travel Tips’ have eager tourists wanting to know
where to go on their trip to Ireland. Without blatantly promoting only Ballingeary, consider
writing a set of suggested concise itineraries with businesses in the West Cork area and
include Ballingeary as a 1-3 night stop with interesting thing to do suggested.
• Set up the popular ‘Down Memory Lane’ Facebook groups and encourage people in the
locality to upload old photos and then members can help date and name the people and places
(crowd sourcing essential info). They can also contribute stories, folklore, photographs and
other oral histories before they are lost to time. Facebook is a good platform to collect and
store this information.
• Continue and support other projects and research such as Local Place Names, Traditions
and Folklore. Seek and avail of local training for these types of projects.
• Similar roadside signs to that seen in Kerry – roadside ‘Geology of West Kerry’
• Enter annual ‘Best Place to Holiday’ competitions such as in the Irish Times. The majority of
the ‘pitch’ can be written and refined now in anticipation of future competitions.
• Embrace the opportunity that Weddings in Gougane Barra present for accommodation and
more. Make it Irelands Romantic Capital with Gougane Barra, gentle boat trips on the lakes,
walks and more.
• Some activities such as Fishing can be seen as difficult to do or find and as a result off-putting.
Consider a series of ‘Learn to…’ activities such as Fishing, Photography, Painting, Writing,
Cooking, Road Bowl, Kick a point and more with local experts.
• Investigate Bike rental in Ballingeary with possible grant aide available
• Everyone is competing for walkers and cyclists so combine these activities with the great
nearby heritage to get the best results. It’s important to note that ‘come see our history’ can
and should co-exist with ’come see our mountain walks’ with approximately 75% of tourists
who visit heritage sites also participating in outdoor activities. Work with landowners and/or
Coilte, investigate the Mountain Bike tourism market.
• Consider developing tourism and heritage projects around Corks only Crannog on Lough
Allua. Boat or Kayak trips and in conjunction with Cork County Council Heritage Officer
investigate the possibility of finding or recreating the old causeway, improvements to the
crannog or a Replica on nearby dry land.