Well done to all involved in the tourism document.
If the points within it are achieved, I think we are well on the way in re-positioning Cork City as a tourism hub for the southern part of Ireland and developing new methodologies in the marketing the city.
Plus that instead of us building around places such as Fota Wildlife Park or Cobh, that we centre Cork with those locations around us – I think it’s important the city keeps the mantra that we are the heart of the energy that does exist in this region. We shouldn’t be against the rest of the country but a leader.
We should keep pushing to get Cork out of Cork…I think it’s important that we up our game in keeping the city as the second city.
On that note I would like to note the Titanic exhibition outside City Hall, which is very good plus very attractive but I would like to play the Devil’s Advocate card on it. Here we are promoting the cultural history of Belfast in front of our City Hall with no real mention to our strong port history – I say all of that in light of Belfast’s promotion as a heritage city through its various social media. I think there should be our port history as well on display. I don’t like the idea of Cork being a pawn in Belfast’s tourism expansion.
I’m excited about the turn to promoting the actual history of Cork City, its 1400 year history through the re-opening of Elizabeth Fort, which is very diverse and should be tapped into more and more.
I’m very excited about the new tourism ambassadors and some of these need to be placed at the gateway points to the city, Kent Station and Cork Airport.
I think and it’s probably not the role of Team’s but the city should be providing ongoing training in what is going on in the city – especially the B&Bs and guest houses should be targeted in place along Western Road. There is room for training programmes for festival co-ordinators and service providers.
The role of our student population should be tapped into and how they could promote the city, they’re 20,000 of them there and more often than not the city never thanks them for their input into the economics fortunes of the city plus how can we strengthen their involvement in the festivals of the City. I think certainly the two student Union Presidents should be chatted to.
On the Gathering of 2012, Cork should be promoted as the south of Ireland gateway for this festival, plus we should write to our international contacts inviting them over here.
I think the more the city thinks about how to harness its strong assets the better, even items such as the Knitting Map, which I would ask the manager to find a home for are all things that up this city’s game in promoting itself.
