Collaborative sustainable development in drive tourism on the Wild Atlantic Way: A community perspective

The Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) large-scale drive tourism route is unique in Ireland in that it runs for 2500km of coastline from Donegal to West Cork. It incorporates hundreds of coastal communities on the extreme periphery of Europe. The success of drive tourism depends on the level of community
collaboration and engagement in tourism developments (ITIC, 2011; WTTC, 2013; Timothy & Boyd, 2015), especially since communities have been identified as vital to a tourist’s experience (Carson et al, 2002). However obtaining community support and collaboration in such tourism developments can be difficult to attain. In order to achieve collaborative sustainable development in drive tourism on the WAW, community engagement is required to sustain this product and to further grow its potential. As such this drive tourism product requires a careful collaborative planning and management approach to sustainably develop the route and to ensure its longevity.