Council Delighted to Host EU Millennials Tours
May 26, 2016
Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council was delighted to have had two EU Millennials Tours recently take part in its area as part of a transnational tourism initiative to preserve the industrial heritage of the area.
The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to young people who came of age politically, economically and socially as the 21st Century and the new millennium. In 2014, the ranged in age from 18 to 33.
The Council took part in this initiative as its contribution to linking European industrial heritage sites sharing common features, providing added value to the existing tourism products for seniors and young people to enhance the low and medium season. The industrial heritage covered in the Council area was the linen industry and the strategic importance Lisburn played in it, while encouraging tourism locally for economic benefit in Lisburn and Castlereagh.
A total of 35 people took part across the two tour groups - Thornhill College Girls School, Londonderry and ITT Livia Bottardi in Rome, which is a prestigious school of Tourism. Each tour included tours of Hillsborough Castle and the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum.
The Council is one of six European project partners working on this EU funded project. Its role within the project was to create an itinerary aimed at providing a learning and creative trip that would ‘stimulate the younger generation to the importance of EU industrial heritage sites and ensure this history is remembered by future generations’.
Elements of the tours within the Council area included culture, knowledge, technology and leisure. Each of these are important to ensure that Millennials are educated in styles they learn by.
Mayor, Councillor Thomas Beckett, officially welcoming the groups to the City, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome these young people to Lagan Valley Island, the Council’s headquarters. The EU Millennials Tour Project has provided us with an opportunity to develop a European Industrial Heritage Trail to ensure our heritage is remembered by future generations, thereby creating a sustainable tourism product to be enjoyed all year round,” concluded Councillor Beckett.
After the guided tours of Hillsborough Castle, Hillsborough Courthouse and Hillsborough village the group were shown around Navigation House, the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum and ‘R Space’ Arts gallery in the centre of Lisburn.
The tour groups also undertook the “Titanic Experience” in Belfast on day two in a continuation of the industrial heritage theme.
