(TAN): A small community tourism network in the Irish county of Clare has been named one of the world’s top 30 places, people and tourism projects for 2021. Described as “a global leader for sustainable tourism” in Lonely Planet’s annual ‘Best in Travel’ list, the Burren Ecotourism Network has been hailed ‘Best Tourism Project’ for the year ahead, reported Irish Independent.
Home to some of Europe’s most remarkable landscapes and a couple of breathtaking attractions, County Clare’s tourism authorities felt that just talking about responsible tourism and sustainability was not going to be enough. This led to the formation of the
Burren Ecotourism Network in 2011. Till date the network includes over 60 local businesses committed to promoting the region through responsible tourism and sustainability.
According to Helen Browne, manager of Doolin Cave and visitor Centre of County Clare, Burren was always highly regarded by the tourists, but the tourist businesses lacked unity. “The coming together of tourist businesses from all over the Burren has filled this gap and the [Burren EcoTourism Network] has become the ‘voice’ of the Burren for visitors,” said Browne to Lonely Planet.
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The lunar-like karst landscape of the Burren is a 216-square-mile wonderland of exposed limestone riveted through with an extraordinary mix of Mediterranean and Arctic-alpine plants, three-quarters of Irish wildflower species, and no less than 23 species of beautiful orchids. To the southwest are the magnificent 702ft-high entirely vertical Cliffs of Moher, a dramatic procession of dark sandstone and siltstone heads, the edges of which fall abruptly away into a ceaselessly churning Atlantic.
“We’re absolutely thrilled, because it’s an acknowledgement of over a decade’s work,” Jarlath O’Dwyer, the network’s CEO was quoted as saying by the media. “And that’s 10 years through thick and thin, where people had to put in a lot of their own time and resources, hold on to their beliefs and stay motivated.”
That is true for this year more than ever. The pandemic decimated Irish tourism, and O’Dwyer recalled members’ reactions back in March, when international travel shut down, as being of “massive fear”. But the network pulled together, ran weekly Zoom meetings, collaborated on marketing and social media and managed to salvage a “very good” 12 weeks of staycation business.
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Members range from iconic attractions like the Cliffs of Moher and Aillwee Caves to the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon and small operators like Linalla Ice Cream and forager Oonagh O’Dwyer’s Wild Kitchen. Sustainability is “the bedrock” for all, O’Dwyer explains, from a Code of Sustainable Practice governing waste and energy to an ethos of slow tourism and local engagement.
The same has been echoed by Lonely Planet’s team of experts who said the network shows “that popular tourism and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive”. In 2011 the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark gained Global Geopark status. The Geopark, spanning over 530 square kilometres, was recognised by UNESCO as an area of geological wonder in the year 2015.
Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons said the accolade was “really good news” in a devastating year, “and will surely inspire travellers everywhere to put the Burren, county Clare and the island of Ireland on their holiday wishlist, when the time is right”.
The annual ‘Best in Travel’ is usually a bucket list of destinations for the year ahead, but the pandemic forced a rethink this year. “We focused on how people travel now: outdoor; in family groups; purposefully; with careful attention to the communities they will explore,” Noirín Hegarty of Lonely Planet said to the media. The aim is to highlight destinations and individuals that enable visitors “to make genuine contributions through regenerative travel”.
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