Fáilte Ireland has published a toolkit for tourism stakeholders and operators in County Cork to provide guidance on what works best when attracting visitors. Ireland’s Ancient East – A Toolkit for Storytelling Interpretation seeks to assist attraction managers, tourism businesses, accommodation providers, local authorities, planners and designers to find their best stories and tell them in an engaging way for visitors.

Speaking today, Minister of State for Tourism, Patrick O’Donovan said: “Bringing history alive is at the core of Ireland’s Ancient East. I am particularly pleased to see that Fáilte Ireland has captured best practice in the region to share with everybody and assist them to create greater impact in their offering.

“We are a nation of storytellers so there’s no reason why we can’t do this better within tourism than our competitors in other destinations. I would encourage all those serious about tourism in Ireland’s Ancient East to absorb the lessons in this toolkit and incorporate them into their plans.”

The toolkit emphasises that successful tourism attractions are built on visitor desires. Fáilte Ireland has carried out comprehensive research into the motivations that would best prompt people to visit Ireland’s Ancient East. The typical target visitor likes to be independent, discover unusual experiences, connect with the past and meet Irish people and share their way of life. Therefore the ideal approach to local storytelling involves:

 *   A focus on the audience;
 *   Highlights people, actions and relationships rather than just facts and dates;
 *   Creates empathy between people from different times, cultures and places;
 *   Creates atmosphere and a sense of place.

Emphasising the central role of storytelling for the brand, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Ireland’s Ancient East Jenny De Saulles said: “Visitors relate to stories and interesting people – something we have in abundance within Ireland’s Ancient East. Bringing the past alive in County Cork for the overseas tourist requires knowledge of what they expect and the best ways to reach them. This toolkit should serve as an invaluable guide for everybody involved in tourism in the county and assist all of us to generate the growth in visitors, revenue and jobs which the brand has the potential to deliver.”

The toolkit uses real life examples from Ireland’s Ancient East to illustrate many areas of good practice when bringing local history alive, including heritage trails, community projects, guided tours and the use of audio visual, digital and print media.

You can access Ireland’s Ancient East – A Toolkit for Storytelling Interpretation here

Pictured above at the launch in the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford are from Cork City Council Paul Moynihan, Jenny DeSaulle, Head of Ireland’s Ancient East, Fáilte Ireland, Cusula Ramsel, Paul Kelly Chief Executive of Fáilte Ireland and Jo Gazely.