Vol. 525 No. 5
146 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the activities planned by her Department to promote the education and tourism aspects of sites or buildings of historical or cultural interest or importance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25612/00]
My Department is acutely aware of the importance of our sites to the tourism sector, and thus takes an extremely pro-active approach to promoting them, including: the production of a range of high-quality promotional material, available in several languages, and distributed within Ireland and overseas via Bord Fáilte market offices, regional tourism authorities, bed and breakfasts, hotels, etc.; attendance at major overseas trade and consumer pro motions in key markets, for example UK, US, France, Germany, Benelux and Italy, and at travel trade workshops in Ireland; advertising the heritage card in key tourism publications; ongoing contacts with tour operators, Bord Fáilte personnel, and travel writers; upgrading the Heritage of Ireland website and participation in promotional schemes aimed at domestic and overseas markets.
With regard to education, I have always believed the effective communication of the conservation message to children of school going age is a key element in our efforts to effectively protect our heritage in the long-term.
Towards that end, I have instructed the education and visitor services division of my Department to examine how this message might be better delivered to schools, and in that context a number of avenues are being actively considered. These include a more effective system for liaison by my Department's heritage sites and properties with local schools, the preparation of an appropriate heritage module for use at transition year level, and a video which would present the essentials of the heritage message in clear and easily understood terms.
Some of these proposals will take longer to pursue than others, and may have staffing and other resource implications which will have to be evaluated. Relevant issues will also have to be fully discussed with the Department of Education and Science.
In January this year, I announced a scheme of free educational visits for schools, under which primary and secondary school pupils have free access to Dúchas sites on a pre-booked basis. Since then, 27,279 pupils have visited heritage sites under this scheme. I believe that, as this scheme develops further, it will give many more school children a real experience of their heritage, which they will learn from and enjoy.
In addition, my Department has been actively promoting the activities of the national cultural institutions which include the Chester Beatty Library, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Archives, the National Concert Hall, the National Gallery of Ireland, National Library of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland and The National Theatre, Abbey and Peacock Theatres.
In 1998, the Department decided to specifically market the national cultural institutions internationally and developed a unique design concept, Dublin: A Magical Trail of Culture, which was successfully translated to a range of promotional material and advertising media primarily a high-quality colour brochure, comprising, for the first time information on the group of institutions concerned. This promotional activity was targeted to the overseas markets, primarily Britain, North America, France, Germany and Italy. This year it was decided to raise the profile and highlight the activities, valuable resources and social events at these Institutions to the domestic market utilising the Dublin: A Magical Trail of Culture concept.
