Inspiring EU Millenial Tour Project hailed a great success

Chairman of the council's Development Committee, Councillor Uel Mackin, with participants and stakeholders from the EU Millennial Tour Project.

Students shared how rewarding the 18-month experience had been and how their respective courses had been significantly enriched from participating in the project.

Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council was one of six European project partners that worked on the EU-funded project. With the mission statement ‘Travelling the past to forge the future’, the council’s role was to create an itinerary aimed at providing a learning and a creative trip that ‘stimulated the young generations to the value of the EU industrial heritage sites as memory of our past’.

Welcoming everyone to the feedback session, the Chairman of the council’s Development Committee, Councillor Uel Mackin, said: “It has been an excellent opportunity for the council to work on this EU-funded project aimed at developing a transnational tourism product mixing together culture, education, knowledge capitalization and entrepreneurship. My advice to the Millennials is to ‘dream today and put their dreams into operation tomorrow’. Thank you to the students from North West Regional College and South Eastern Regional College who took part in the project and also thanks to our speakers Katrina Malley from STA Travel and Jac Callan, Leisure and Sales Manager, Visit Belfast for their inspiring advice.”

Key themes of the session included the importance of Millennial students across the EU sharing their positive travel experiences and to act as advocates on social media and other digital platforms. It was also highlighted that Millennials, who are having a huge impact on the travel industry, are travelling more than ever. Tourism providers and policy makers need to ensure that existing tourism packages, such as those relating to industrial heritage, are promoted in a format which is appealing and relative to the younger generation.

The pilot EU Millenial Tour Project was regarded as a resounding success by all involved and Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council has said it’s keen to be involved in similar initiatives in the future.