Hercules Project

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HERCULES - ‘Heritage  & Culture for Learning, Empowerment
and Sustainable Tourism’ is a two year pilot project running from June 2011 to June 2013.  It is piloting an innovative education and community development approach to empower communities to develop sustainable cultural tourism products built on 'Sense of Place' in County Waterford, Ireland and Carmarthenshire, Wales.  The project forms a partnership between Dunhill Rural Enterprises  Ltd, Waterford County Council and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.  It is part funded by the  European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Ireland Wales Programme  2007-2013, (Interreg4a).  The project is  also supported by Faílte Ireland, Copper Coast Tourism Committee and the Comeragh  Community Development Group.  

Project objectives:
  1. Pilot a Post Graduate Certificate in Heritage Tourism: Sense of Place
  2. Pilot a sense of place online social network
  3. Conduct sense of place research research in Waterford and Carmarthenshire
  4. Identify growth areas for sense of place tourism in Waterford and Carmarthenshire
  5. Establish cross-border cultural links


What is 'Sense of Place'?
A sense of place is essentially those aspects that add up to a feeling that a community is a special place, distinct from anywhere else.  Sense of place characteristics include:
  • shared cultural, historic and social bonds
  • local knowledge
  • landscape
  • special events
  • special characteristics such as people, sports, agriculture, architecture, culture, arts, heritage, religion, the local economy etc.


Bottom-up Approach to Job Creation
How does sense of place enable job creation? The heritage assets of our communities possess a variety and richness, a uniqueness of place that is of No.1 interest to visitors.  Our landscapes, environment, gardens, songs, music, dance, folklore and stories, architecture and ancient structures all captivate the imagination of visitors which gives genuine potential for job creation through the development of products and services built on these assets.

If you have set up or would like to set up a tourism enterprise or project and would like assistance on how to make the most of your community's sense of place assets to enrich your tourism offering we can help.

For more information contact:

Senan Cooke
051 396622
​[email protected]
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