€50,000 Investment by local partners in Food Tourism Projects

Following an application to the Dept. of Agriculture, Food and the Marine by Carlow County Council in partnership with Carlow Tourism, €50,000 will be invested in a Food Tourism project over the coming months. The project will build on the previously developed “Carlow Food Trail” and aims to develop awareness of locally produced food and key tourism food establishments. Funding of €32,500 has been provided by the Department with the balance of the funding being sourced locally.

The proposed project is aimed at building connections and developing brand tools and events for County Carlow indigenous food producers which links their message to the already developed brand of County Carlow’s Tourism marketing & product offering.

Speaking about the project, Kieran Comerford – Head of Enterprise with Carlow County Council said “At the heart of the project is the vision that it will provide a twofold benefit to companies and individuals who engage in the project. The accepted benefit for the food manufacturer or farmer is increased sales and awareness in particular in local markets and the benefit for the tourism venue is the provision of a ready-made toolkit to allow them to embrace buying locally and also how to communicate same to their customers”

The project involves the development of a food cook book which links Carlow’s restaurants & eating establishments with local producers, the development of Pan Celtic Taste of Carlow and support for Carlow’s Culinary Christmas and will be delivered by a partnership approach between Carlow County Council’s  - Local Enterprise Office and Carlow Tourism.

Eileen O’Rourke, Chief Executive of Carlow Tourism said: 'By equipping owners and managers of local food businesses with industry knowledge and skills, they have a better chance of succeeding in business by creating synergies with other sectors such as Tourism”. The goal of these projects is to help more food producers to start selling through tourism establishments while also creating a general awareness of the food sector in Carlow which may enable all companies to scale up and achieve this retail break-through”

Cathaoirleach of Carlow County Council John Murphy who is Chairman of Carlow Tourism said. “I am delighted and welcome this announcement of funding for tourism in County Carlow. The marketing of food tourism and our producers is a welcome addition to the key message that county Carlow has to portray as a destination of choice with a variety of tourism activities from food, culture, history and adventure”.

Director of Services with Carlow County Council, Bernie O’Brien said “This innovative project is a perfect example of how Carlow County Council can work with key partners in order to promote a specific sector in a strategic way” O’Brien continued to say that “the food sector is vitally important to the Carlow economy and Carlow over the past number of years has been proud to be the home of many indigenous enterprises such as Walsh Whiskey, Seery’s, O’Hara’s, Sunshine Juice and a nationally recognized Farmers Market”.