The Burren Ecotourism has won the Irish Independent’s green light award for sustainability in this year’s ‘Reader Travel Awards’.
The judges applauded the network for it’s ‘contribution to sustainable tourism which they said helped ‘make Ireland a greener destination and inspirational example’.
Made up of 62 tourism enterprises, from cheesemongers to carbon-neutral hotels, they applauded the network’s efforts to conserve the area through training, initiatives and a code of sustainable practices.
“The members promote initiatives like community clean-ups and each business gives out Burren Bags — tote bags that can be filled with rubbish found when guests are out exploring.” the judges said. They added that businesses can also adopt hedgerows and undergo biodiversity training, and support the Burren Pine Project, which aims to restore Ireland’s only native pine species, previously believed to have been extinct.
In May 2020, the network launched a visitor voucher that could be spent among any of the members, and it also held two festivals completely virtually during the pandemic — the Burren Food Fayre and Burren Slow Food Festival.
Jarlath O’Dwyer, CEO of the Burren Ecotourism Network said: “We’re proud of the fact we’ve mobilized the community with our regular litter picking and beach clean-ups. There’s always a great turnout, not just from our members, but also from people in the community as well. That’s a sign that people really want to protect the area.”
In 2020, the Lonely Planet named the network as one of the world’s Best Community Tourism Projects and “a global leader for sustainable tourism”.
For more information go to www.burren.ie
