ERRIN TOURISM WORKING GROUP

I recently attended a meeting of the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) Tourism Working Group.

I gave a presentation to the group on how, South Dublin County Council, as a local authority, is successfully leading the development of tourism in the south-west Dublin region.

For those unfamiliar with the ERRIN tourism working group, it is part of ERRIN, a Brussels based network of more than ninety European regions with the objective to ;-

• Strengthen the research and innovative capacities of European regions by facilitating knowledge exchange, joint actions and project partnerships
• Influence EU policies, and engage in debate with EU institutions to make them respond better to the regional needs

ERRIN has thirteen working groups covering diverse areas such as biotechnology, health, ICT, energy and climate change, design and creativity, innovation funding, transport and nanotech.

The tourism working group is involved in shaping EU tourism policy, participating in projects and sharing best practices among European regions. Its links with NECSTour (the Network of European Regions for a Sustainable and Competitive Tourism) has resulted in a very ambitious joint programme of activities for 2012. I was amazed to discover that there is no direct Irish representation on the ERRIN Tourism Working Group and that no region in Ireland is a member of NECSTour.

Why is this significant? Well, even though tourism is the largest indigenous sector of the Irish economy, Ireland is losing a valuable opportunity to participate in and shape ongoing EU tourism developments, at the very time that Europe's new political framework for tourism is taking shape.

It would be impossible to imagine the Irish farming community missing out on such an opportunity.