Community engagement in drive tourism in Ireland: case study of the Wild Atlantic Way

This paper presents research, which investigates community engagement in drive tourism in Ireland. In particular, it focuses on the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW), Ireland’s first long distance drive touring route stretching along the Atlantic coast for 2500 km from Donegal to West Cork. Face-to-face surveys were carried out to obtain a representative sample of community stakeholders along this touring route. The findings provide insight into the level of community engagement with drive tourism on the WAW with a high level of approval for the project but a low level of community integrated involvement with this drive-tourism product. This paper concludes that while there are low levels of community engagement with the WAW, there is a significant level of community support for the development of the WAW. However, to acquire community engagement in tourism development requires sustainable planning to maximize community benefits and minimize community costs thus increasing community participation, which is somewhat lacking.