Life Sciences: Taste for adventure in a spectacular setting

FOOD CAPITAL

It has been some billions of years in the making — and with the relentless Atlantic Ocean continually pounding our western shores, it might well be classed an ‘ongoing project’—but it wasn’t until the advent of a rather inspired Fáilte Ireland (FI) tourism branding campaign that the wider world woke up to the true magnificence of one of the most elemental and ruggedly beautiful stretches of coastline to be found anywhere in the world, the Wild Atlantic Way.

Unfolding over some 2,600km, from Ireland’s most northerly point, at Malin Head, in Co Donegal, and all the way down the western seaboard to the other ‘end’, in Kinsale, Co Cork, the WAW has driven tourism numbers from abroad to unparalleled heights and has equally opened the eyes of many natives to this treasure right on their very doorstep.

And before anyone starts harrumphing about merely sticking a new label on an old ‘product’, it should be noted that not only has the internationally-acclaimed and award-winning campaign provided the narrative coherency to embrace as a single whole what might hitherto have been considered a rather random and disparate set of elements and locations, FI has very actively involved itself in promoting and even adding to existing infrastructure along the WAW, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the area of food and food tourism.

Again, like the landscape, premium food and hospitality experiences were already abundant in many outposts along the WAW — in particular, Kinsale, Co Cork, the region of West Cork itself, Dingle, in Co Kerry, and Galway — but what FI has done is to help bolster lesser served areas in between these luminous outposts to create a ‘necklace’ of top grade food and hospitality experiences stretching the entire length of the route.

A collaboration with BIM, linking local shellfish and seafood producers with local hospitality outlets began two years ago as a pilot programme in the North-West and now stretches along the entire route, while Taste the Atlantic is a dedicated seafood trail incorporating many of these same producers directly into a food tourism experience.

Sinead Hennessy, FI’s Food Tourism Officer explains: “Taste the Atlantic aims to profile the world class seafood offering we have.

"This is positioned primarily as a ‘meet the maker’, we have 20 producers — including Haven Smokehouse, in Donegal, to Connemara Smokehouse to Burren Smokehouse to Kerry Premium Oysters to Haven Shellfish, in Kinsale — you can visit on this trail, tourists can talk to them directly about their work and daily lives and enjoy their taste recommendations.

“It is really just to draw out and profile something that would be resonant for the WAW.

"If you look at the WAW in its entirety, and the food associated with it, seafood is the natural fit.

It’s like going to Naples and seeing the food identity: pizza, fresh tomatoes, all that kind of stuff; we wanted to do something similar for the WAW, identify a food sector that resonates with the brand. It really is about stimulating those things that visitors want that fit well with the brand.

Though not part of the official campaign, renowned Irish food writers John and Sally McKenna spotted its appeal almost immediately and, already very familiar with many of the cafes, restaurants, B&Bs and hotels along the route, wrote a guide specifically for dining and hospitality along the WAW.

Says Sally McKenna: “It really has been one of our most successful projects ever, it sold three editions very quickly and worked very well for us.

"WAW is such a great concept, you can follow it north or south, it’s not complex and it lends itself to food because there are so many places that are an archetype of the experience people on holiday in remote areas, looking for around food and hospitality: from the simple picnic to a little café overlooking the sea serving fish and chips to a room with view of the beach.

"It has all the elements—not just the food—but the activities, the fresh air, the scenery, all come together to work so well.”