Although sharing a natural geographical hinterland, the existence of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and the corresponding closure of several cross border roads for many years, led to the areas of West Fermanagh and South Donegal attempting to market and promote themselves as essentially separate tourist destinations. Following a series of meetings held between Erne Enterprise and Belleek & District Partnership, the Belleek & Erne Partnership was formed in 2003 as an embryonic cross border initiative with the aim of adopting a joint approach in tourism marketing and promotion efforts. Later the same year, Northwest Tourism and Fermanagh Lakelands Tourism initiated a similar collaborative approach based on a wider area. Resulting from dialogue around these initiatives efforts towards co-operative promotion began. However, it became apparent that the issue of branding of the areas needed to be addressed for effective promotional activity. It was felt that any such branding identity being developed needed to be neutral enough so as not to be overly biased towards any individual parts of the catchment area.
In mid-2005, Erne Enterprise Development Company Ltd., in conjunction Belleek and District Partnership submitted an application and were awarded funding of €89,462 under Priority 1 Measure 1 Business and Economic Development of the EU INTERREG IIIA Programme for Ireland / Northern Ireland implemented by the Irish Central Border Area Interreg IIIA Partnership, with a requirement for €29,820 of match funding coming from other sources. The funding was provided to assist with meeting the main aims of an initiative entitled “Donegal Bay & Fermanagh Lakelands Development & Marketing Project”.
Project Aims & Objectives
The Donegal Bay & Fermanagh Lakelands Development & Marketing Project set the following as its aims:
Encourage co-operative and collaborative approaches to marketing South Donegal and West Fermanagh;
Package the area as one distinct destination on a cross border basis;
Improve the visitor experience;
Increase the number of visitors to the area.
In order to meet the aims of the project, the promoters outlined the following objectives:
Area brochure and distribution
Promotional display stands
Promotions – holiday fairs, etc
Website – develop an area-based website and link to all existing local sites
