The Carlinford and Mourne region must be packaged and sold as a single tourism product if it is to reach its potential according to outgoing Cooley Peninsula tourism officer Frances Taylor. What’s more Frances who has played a crucial role in the development of the Cooley Peninsula as a major tourist destination believes that the development of such a package must be community and private sector led. Such is her belief in the region’s potential that Frances has left the tourist after 11 years to embark on a new project – Carlingford and Mourne Ltd www.carlingfordandmourne.com . “Carlingford has the weekend market wrapped up,” she said. “But the next phase is to put the region on the international market. This can maintain and create jobs. But we need to build our region into a decent attraction and to do that we must be community led from the ground up.” Putting her money where her mouth is Frances has helped establish the new venture with a website currently providing, packages, hospitality and event listings, myths and legends genealogy and visitor attractions from Newcastle to Dundalk. “We are delivering on the Memorandum of understanding which was signed by Newry and Mourne and Louth Co Council in Brussels last year and now we need to apply pressure to improve the appeal of the area including getting the attractions such as the castles open,” Frances said. A further difficulty that Frances feels needs addressing is the tendency of major tourist guides to list attractions in north Louth, south Down and south Armagh separately rather than as a single entity. “This needs to be viewed as the same destination,” she said. “We need to ignore borders. Then Lonely Planet and the other guides will cover the wider area as a destination in itself.” Meanwhile Carlingford ferries will launch a ‘Visit Carlingford Lough’ App for mobile phones on February 24 at Bagenals Castle. The launch will also feature ‘a taste of Carlingford and the Mournes’ with guests sampling a range of local produce including fish, lamb and cakes from the locality.
Newry Reporter
15th February 2012
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