Rural Tourism International’s Blog

On the 1^st of October our Leonardo Partnership project got underway with the first of a two day meeting, held in a local rural tourism visitor attraction; Bear Essentials in County Cavan.  One of our main objectives initially was to become familiar with the partners, organisations and with the project which will we deliver over the next two years.

First meeting of Leonardo Partnership Project

Within our partnership project we have a diverse group of partners which represent training institutions, agricultural colleges, ecotourism, rural development and the guesthouse accommodation sector.  The common objectives of the partnership is the development of a sustainable rural tourism sector across the EU and in particular the countries which we represent including; Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands, Romania and Ireland.  We all have a commitment to achieve this through the accreditation of our Rural Tourism International – Train the Trainers programme.

Following our initial introductions, Anke Morgonroth the proprietor of Bear Essentials and a rural tourism trainer delivered a short workshop which helped us to focus on the competencies of a rural tourism trainer and a rural tourism entrepreneur.  This was a worthwhile activity which was engaging, creative and provided some insight in to andragogy.

Kevin McLoughlin introduces partners to Irish accreditation system

This was followed by a presentation by Kevin McLoughlin from Athlone Institute of Technology on the National Qualifications Framework in Ireland, the European Credit Transfer System, Recognition of Prior Learning and the assessment system.  This created a high level of discussion among the partners as we started to prepare the ground work for our project. 

The second day of our meeting was held in a rural guesthouse based in County Monaghan where we continued with our meeting agenda.  I was happy at the end of our meeting as each of the partners had clarified their roles within the project and we all agreed that we must support each other through regular communication to ensure the success of our project.

Partners delighted to have project support from 'Knut' the polar bear as our first 'silent partner'

This is the first step in achieving our project aims, objectives and building a strong project team. Watch this space for further updates and opportunities for ‘silent partners’ to become involved in our project and we are looking forward to our next meeting planned for early December.

We would like to here comments from RTITN members or any other individual involved in the rural tourism sector.