22 August 2012
Two new exciting living history tours through the historic hearts of medieval Galway City and Waterford City’s Viking Triangle offering visitors authentic fun and interactive insights into the rich culture, heritage and people of both destinations have just been announced.
These new tours are the first in the “Sharing Our Stories” initiative - a new Fáilte Ireland Interpretation and Animation project which aims to gradually enhance the visitor’s experience of Ireland by bringing our heritage and culture to life both inside visitor attractions and in the public spaces of key destinations.
With nine out of ten international visitors (in 2011) rated “meeting friendly, hospitable people” as a “very important” factor in their decision to visit Ireland, Fáilte Ireland is hoping this “Sharing our stories” initiative will demonstrate the great potential to animate our culture and heritage for visitors through the energetic and engaging human interaction for which we are regularly praised.
Initiated by Fáilte Ireland and supported by Galway city’s Latin Quarter, Tribes Alive! is an enchanting new 70 minute dramatic walk through the winding medieval streets of Galway’s Latin Quarter which will run twice a day, (Monday to Friday), from Wednesday 22 August until 21 September 2012.
Fáilte Ireland has also been working with the award winning Waterford Museum of Treasures to provide animated tours of three of the historic visitor attractions in Waterford’s recently revitalised cultural quarter, the Viking Triangle.
From August 25th, and running for eight weeks, actors will lead visitors though the beautifully restored Bishop’s Palace, to Christ Church Cathedral and through the brand new Medieval Museum.
Fáilte Ireland’s Director of Strategic Development, Mr Aidan Pender emphasised:
These new visitor experiences have been developed on a pilot basis in response to the fact that eight out of ten people travelling to Ireland for their holidays tell us they want to experience heritage. If we can meet that demand while adding colour and vibrancy to our historic town centres, we will go a long way towards ensuring high satisfaction levels, positive word of mouth and repeat visits from all our key consumer markets.”