County Kildare Walking Routes Project - Kildare.ie

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County Kildare Walking Routes Project 5.2 Funding of Activities A number of agencies provide supports for walking routes development and maintenance. Government Departments with responsibility for developing and promoting walking routes and heritage trails include the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, the Department of Environment, Local Government and Heritage and the Office of Public Works. The Office of Public Works and the Department of Environment, Local Government and Heritage publish promotional documents that include walking tours. A niche product marketing group for walking is supported from a designated budget disbursed by Failte Ireland. The Midlands and Eastern Tourism Authority is responsible for marketing walking to the domestic market. Tourism Ireland Ltd. is responsible for promoting Ireland overseas as a tourist destination. The Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs operates the Rural Social Scheme that will fund projects such as maintaining and enhancing waymarked ways, agreed walks and bog roads. The Kildare Leader Company KELT funds a number of community development projects that involve walking routes. Walking in Kildare is promoted by associations such as Walking Cycling Ireland and the Irish Sports Council. A number of associations such as Heritage Towns of Ireland (no Kildare towns included) and Heritage Island (includes Japanese Gardens) market Irish heritage walks. However no co-ordinated strategy for promoting walking in County Kildare exists. There is a need for focus and inter agency co-operation that could be provided by a County Kildare Walking Task Force under the guidance of Kildare County Council. Clearly there are a number of budgets available to finance the activities outlined above. Kildare County Council can work with and support the promotional and development activities of other groups by using available funds to leverage a higher level of spend on walking route development and promotion. This is best addressed at project level because each walking project will have a different mix of private, public and community involvement. The estimated cost of the general activities to support promotion and development of walking routes by the responsible agencies could be in the region of €80,000 per annum (see Table 3 below). Kildare County Council could make a contribution of seed money to targeted activities of the responsible agencies and other groups to ensure that development activities are standardised and promotional activities are co-ordinated and in keeping with the County Development Plan. The cost of upgrading walks to a level suitable for promotion will need to be calculated for each individual walking route. CSA Project 3419 14
County Kildare Walking Routes Project Table 3: Indicative Annual Promotional Budget for Walking Routes in Kildare 1 Advertising (local radio, newspapers) (€) 15,000 2 Sponsorship of Events (contribution to private sector co-sponsorship) 10,000 3 Media Management (in partnership with Regional Tourism Authority) 15,000 4 Promotional Material (update and re printing of existing material in partnership 20,000 with RTA) 5 Updating of Information (website maintenance by part time IT officer) 10,000 6 Market research and result distribution (in association with e.g. NUIM) 10,000 TOTAL € 80,000 5.3 Monitoring & Evaluation of Impact The monitoring and evaluation of the walking routes should be part of an overall management plan that is part the ongoing work plan of the county council engineering department. The success of the activities above will depend on the contribution of agencies and government departments outside the control of Kildare County Council. Furthermore base line data such as current usage of walking routes is not available to measure future success. Other indicators will have to be found. Failte Ireland attitude surveys to walking, local market surveys (e.g. periodic questionnaires at Donadea Forest Park and other high profile locations), number of walking enquiries to Kildare Failte Office and other tourism information centres in Kildare, surveys among service providers (e.g. accommodation providers), sales statistics from walking equipment suppliers, entrance fees to forest parks and publication sales, level of funding to walking related projects and level of media publicity generated (press cuttings file) are some of the indicators that could be used. The most cost effective means of monitoring and evaluating the impact of the strategy activities is to form a relationship with a marketing college that will carry out an annual survey developed in partnership with Kildare County Council as part of its teaching programme. 5.4 Individual Development Plans and Marketing Strategy A Development Plan and Promotional Strategy for the top ten of the highest scoring walks are provided below. Donadea Forest Park (W1): This route received the highest score of 196 out of a potential total of 250 (78%). The Forest Park has significant visitor numbers and could be further developed to increase its amenity and heritage value to local, regional and international visitors. The Development Plan should address the following: 1. The walled garden could be developed as an additional visitor attraction with an associated garden centre shop. At Strokestown House in Co. Roscommon the nineteenth century walled garden on the estate was successfully refurbished as a CSA Project 3419 15
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