Twenty MSc Masters in Tourism and Hospitality Management students from D.I.T Cathal Brugha Street accompanied by Programme Coordinator,
Dr. Gerard Dunne and Assistant Head of School, Dr. Ralf Burbach, undertook a two day assignment based field trip to County Carlow, with a view to critically examining approaches to both Destination Marketing and Strategic Tourism Planning within the county.
Facilitated by the destination marketing organisation Carlow Tourism, headed up by Eileen O’Rourke, an itinerary was drawn up to
Based in the Seven Oak’s Hotel, venues, locations, and businesses visited included; Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow Tourist Office, The County Museum, Delta Sensory Garden’s, Ducketts Grove, Rathwood, The Chocolate Garden, and The Step House Hotel in Borris. The significance of natural features such as the River Barrow and the Blackstairs mountains were also taken into account within the context of Carlow’s tourism product mix. visit and engage with a range of stakeholders from both urban and rural settings to gain a broad overview of County Carlow’s tourism potential.
The students thanked Eileen O’Rourke of Carlow Tourism, Michael Murphy and staff at the Seven Oak’s Hotel, Director of Services Carlow County Council, Seamus O’Connor, Edel Galvin of Carlow County Development Partnership, Dermot Mulligan, Curator Carlow County Museum, Michelle Le Forge from Visual, Frank O’Grady of Delta Sensory Garden’s, Managing Director of Rathwood James Keogh, Jim Healy, Proprietor of the Chocolate Garden, and finally Cait Foley, her head chef son Alan and all the staff at the Step House Hotel, Borris.
County Carlow is home to a rich heritage, beautiful countryside, state of the art cultural venues, inspiring family run tourism businesses, and restaurants sourcing top quality local ingredients that are most definitely raising the bar when it comes to delivering a fine dining experience.
The student group observed, listened, and questioned over the two days and go away now to prepare and deliver their assignments, relevant findings of which will be made available to Carlow Tourism.
