*Photograph: Valerie O’Sullivan
Team Tourism have been announced as the appointed tenders to deliver a tourism strategy for Co Clare.
Chief Executive Officer of Clare County Council, Pat Dowling has in recent weeks signed an order with Team Tourism to deliver the plan. This will be a ten year road map to guide the tourism industry in the county. Clare will become the first local authority in the Republic of Ireland to contract Team Tourism to roll out a tourism strategy.
A comprehensive brief was issued by the Council when they went to tender. They emphasised the need for better value and a better experience, the need to increase lengths of stay, visitor spend and spread. Areas such as product review, tourism structure and marketing will be assessed. They expect a very focused strategy will be delivered in the space of six to seven months. The group will be working alongside Joan Tarmey who in recent months was appointed as the tourism officer with the local authority.
Visit Britain, World Tourism Organization, European Travel Commission, World Tourism Cities Federation, Fáilte Ireland, Visit England, Tourism Northern Ireland, Marketing Manchester, Love Cape Town, Tourism Western Australia and Visit Denmark are just some of the 82 clients listed on the UK company’s website.
Some of the projects undertaken by Team Tourism consist of the development of a visitor experience plan along the Skellig Coast, The Daming Palace Heritage Park in China, a review of international representation in Namibia, a study on the US outbound travel market for the ETC, a tourism strategy for the city of Edinburgh as well as a strategy up until 2020 for Newry, Mourne and Down.
Founded in 1997, they have delivered more than 395 projects on all continents of the world. With a core staff of 14, none of these individuals are based in Ireland. However, Team Tourism does employ several consultants as associates around the world including both Caroline Boland and Dr. Kevin Hannigan. The project team for the Clare Tourism Strategy includes three consultants from the Republic of Ireland and one (the project manager) from Northern Ireland who is a senior consultants and a member of the Board of Management.
