The Milltown Sustainable Tourism Project, funded by the South Kerry Development Partnership under the Leader+ program and by the Milltown Community Council and local businesses, led on naturally from the Croi Solais (Heart of Light) group set up in January 2004. The local community and business people were invited to come along to a series of workshops held from March to May 2005, where they could learn about what is meant by sustainable tourism and to make their views known. The project had two main goals:

1. To actively involve the community in the development of Milltown as a sustainable tourism destination that will benefit the local people, stimulate local culture and protect the environment.

2. To make the community aware of and appreciate the beautiful area they live in.

Twelve workshops with different themes were held: The first and seond workshops were to “Train the Trainers” in which the workshop leaders were brought up to date on the sustainable tourism project, its goals and their role in it as workshop leaders. The workshops that followed and were open to the community were: Culture, Health and Wellbeing, Business forum, Pubs, Photography and the Great Outdoors. There were also several workshops for a small group of people who were involved with both developing the website and developing a draft tourism brochure. A final workshop, which was open to everyone, took place in which all the key ideas of the workshops and the way forward were discussed. Milltown wants to develop tourism that benefits both the local community and its visitors. It wants to become a destination with the aim of providing relaxing, outdoor activities, healthy, locally produced food and a real Irish cultural experience in the countryside to its visitors. At the same time the local community will keep control of the scale of tourism development and profits will stay in the local community and sustain the inhabitants. It will encourage the community to take pride in its culture and natural environment they live in and will promote conservation of both. This type of tourism can be categorised as sustainable tourism.

The World Tourism Organisation has defined sustainable tourism as follows:

“Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economical, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems”.

One of the key themes that can be extracted from the workshops is Healthy Living. Healthy Living is THE unique selling point for Milltown. Culture will form an important extra value within this theme. Milltown is already known for its organic market and range of holistic therapies etc. It is also centrally located for outdoor activities; the mountains and the sea are close by. Milltown itself is still a small village set in a rural environment. The focus of the Sustainable Tourism Development Plan is therefore: “Healthy Living within the sustainable tourism concept”.

Research that was carried out shows interesting findings that support the vision of Milltown:

• The need for sustainable tourism development is now recognised by government institutions
• Visitors to Ireland are motivated by the expectation of welcoming people and opportunities to interact with local people and their culture; they want to see beautiful unspoilt scenery and enjoy the comfort and relaxed pace of life.
• Important tourism trends are:

- Increase in short breaks & special interest travel

- Increase in the number of visitors that are older and more affluent

- Tourists are more sophisticated, better educated

- Tourists demand increasingly higher standards

- Visitors want to become involved with the holiday environment, learn new skills & interact with the communities & cultures of their destinations”.

• Consumer demand for sustainable tourism exists
• A small number of sustainable tourism projects/destinations exists or is now being developed in Ireland
• Health and wellbeing tourism is a growing market, but Milltown can at present not promote itself purely as health and wellbeing destination since that would suggest it offers a ‘spa experience’. Milltown can promote itself as “Healthy Living” destination.
• Kerry Airport is a very important arrival port for overseas visitors (Germans, who are generally interested in “Healthy Living” in particular) to Kerry
• Sightseeing is the number one activity of visitors, followed by historical/cultural sites visits, shopping and walking/hiking
• Pub entertainment is the most popular night time activity
• Music, followed by history is the most popular cultural aspect visitors are interested in
• Cork-Kerry tourism wants to develop and promote the type of tourism Milltown is interested in
• Culture and heritage tourism is a growth market globally

From the research a number of issues came forward that need urgent attention to enable the development of sustainable tourism. These are the “uncontrolled” housing development, sewage system problems etc; the need for all stakeholders to work together and support for the “Healthy Living” theme from the community.

Key success factors for Milltown are:

• Central location to important tourist attractions
• Existing “health” image and facilities/services
• Natural surroundings/scenery, peace and quiet
• Great community spirit and enthusiasm
• Close proximity of Kerry Airport
• Healthy Living is becoming increasingly important to consumers

The tourist product consists of three elements: Transportation, Accommodation and Activities. Transport to and from Milltown will need attention. Sufficient accommodation facilities are present although they might need to make some adaptations to be consistent with the “Healthy Living” theme. A range of activities has been identified that Milltown can offer to its visitors. These activities all fit in the “Healthy Living” theme. Some of the activities already exist, while others need to be developed and/ or researched. Combinations of these three elements can be made to form different tourist packages. Two to three day packages will initially be provided.

It is essential that different stakeholders work together in a network to create packages, economies of scale, and carry out joint promotional activities. Tourists will not come and stay in Milltown for one activity of an hour. It is the range of activities that is available that makes it attractive for them to come and stay for a longer period. Pub entertainment is the most popular night time activity of tourists to Kerry. It is therefore crucial to provide music in the pubs in Milltown on a continuous basis. Pubs and restaurants ideally provide locally produced healthy food and fair trade products to their visitors and would use eco friendly cleaning products and materials in their facilities to be consistent with the “Healthy Living” theme.

The aim as defined in the marketing plan for Milltown is:

To become THE ‘Healthy Living’ destination in Kerry that promotes tourism that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

A marketing group has been formed that will be responsible to develop sustainable tourism. In this group all stakeholders will be represented. A marketing strategy has been set up in which the ecotourist is defined as the type of tourist to target. Recommendations are given on promotion, price, people etc. The marketing group will be involved in developing proper strategies to target the type of tourist Milltown wants to attract.

Introduction

Milltown is a small rural village, located in the heart of Kerry. The Milltown Community Council has been involved in a Sustainable Tourism project to generate a collective vision for the future tourism development of Milltown. Through a series of workshops the opinions of the local community were gathered on how and what kind of tourism to develop. The outcomes of the workshops are gathered in this Sustainable Tourism Development Plan. Market research was carried out to determine whether the theme of Healthy Living, as part of sustainable tourism, should be the way forward for Milltown. The research is presented in this Plan, as well as a strategy to actually develop sustainable tourism in Milltown.

Background

The Sustainable Tourism project led on naturally from the Croi Solais (Heart of Light) group set up in January 2004. This name was chosen because of the fact that Milltown lies in the heart of Kerry, and after An Abha Solais, the river that flows through the town. Croi Solais was established as a sub-group of Milltown Community Council and has been very active in promoting local culture, tourism and health & wellbeing in the local area. A successful festival focussing on a modern slant on the traditional Bealtaine festival that was held in May 2004, resulted in the idea of developing Milltown as a sustainable tourism destination.

Many initiatives have been undertaken since then: A local business directory was launched and a website is being developed www.visitmilltown.com with information on things to see and do in the area. The Croi Solais group however wanted more. They wanted to raise awareness and generate support in the local community of the possibilities of promoting Milltown as a centre for sustainable tourism. The Community Council attracted funding from the LEADER+ Programme to carry out a sustainable tourism project.

The World Tourism Organisation has defined sustainable tourism as follows:

“Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunity for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economical, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems”.

Basically sustainable tourism is about the three P’s : People, Planet and Profit.

• People stands for social/cultural sustainability.

• Planet stands for ecological sustainability

• Profit stands for economical sustainability.

These 3 P’s should balance each other in order to maintain sustainable tourism.