Donegal County Council’s Cool Route Project has won an Atlantic Project Award at the prestigious awards ceremony at the 5th Atlantic Stakeholder Platform Conference in Vigo, Spain.
The Atlantic Project Awards, established in 2016, are designed to honour outstanding success stories achieved by projects in the geographical area covered by the Atlantic Strategy that showcase relevance to the implementation of the Atlantic Action Plan.
They promote individual winners and at the same time highlight the incorporation and scaling up of best practices at regional, national, European and international level.
This project was funded by the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme and today’s award recognises the role of the Cool Route project in Creating a Socially Inclusive and Sustainable Model of Regional Development.
The Cool Route Project 2015-2018, is led by Cork Institute of Technology’s (CIT) Hincks Centre for Excellence in Entrepreneurship and has partners in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Faroe Islands and Norway.
Donegal County Council is responsible for the Project Communications and Dissemination of information in relation to all aspects of the project both internally to all partners and externally to stakeholders and the general public.
The Cool Route addresses the development of Marine Tourism, through the provision of small pontoons and marinas in peripheral coastal locations, which facilitate visits from all types of vessels, ranging from small private craft to liners. Even very large liners regularly disembark marine visitors using ship’s tenders. The project successfully completed a wide range of research into all aspects of its objectives.
Accepting the award on behalf of CIT from EU Commissioner Mr Karmenu Vella, Dr Orla Flynn, Cork Institute of Technology’s Vice President for External Affairs, praised all the Cool Route partners around the Northern Periphery and Arctic Area for securing such an excellent recognition of their work. Dr Flynn advised the large attendance from all over the Atlantic Area, of the value of local marinas and small pontoons to the tourism economy of peripheral coastal communities, noting that even liners could disembark visitors to areas having a small pontoon facility.
Cool Route partners and roles are as follows:
· Cork Institute of Technology – Lead Partner, Project Realisation and Commercialisation
· Donegal County Council –Project Communications and Dissemination
· The Royal Cork Yacht Club – Cool Route Marketing
· Derry and Strabane District Council- On line Information and Booking System
· Glasgow Caledonian University- Cool Route logistics
· The Port Authority of Torshavn- Route Safety
· The Western Norway Research Institute – Tourism inputs
For more on the Cool Route project visit www.sailcoolroute.eu or join the conversation on Twitter @EUcoolroute and Facebook @eucoolroute
