Waterways Ireland and Enniskillen Business Improvement District (BID) have teamed up to create the Enniskillen Blueway Activity Hub; a tourism initiative for summer 2017 in which four local tourism businesses will operate from a new hub based at the back of the Waterways Ireland Headquarters on Enniskillen’s Sligo Road.

The Enniskillen Blueway Activity Hub will form part of Waterways Ireland’s ever-expanding network of blueways – the current Blueways consist of 200km of paddling trails, 70km of walking trails and 40km of cycling trails, based on or closely linked with the waterways, that stretch across Cavan, Leitrim, Longford and Roscommon. 

Enniskillen is the next destination in Waterways Ireland’s plan and the initiative will be taken forward in stages in 2017 and 2018. The concept will be expanded on Upper and Lower Lough Erne in 2018 and 2019. 
Share Discovery Village, Erne Boat Hire, Erne Water Taxi and Electric Bike Trails were all awarded the contract to operate out of the new Enniskillen Blueway Activity Hub after expressions of interest were sought.

Chief Executive Officer of Waterways Ireland, Dawn Livingstone told Impartial Reporter Business: “For the summer of 2017, Waterways Ireland in conjunction with Enniskillen Business Improvement District has developed a recreation activity hub as part of the ongoing Enniskillen Blueway developments. The hub will offer everything from guided Canadian canoe tours, canoe and kayak hire, cycle hire, day boat hire and Erne Water Taxi bookings.”

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She explained that since the launch of the first Blueway in 2014, “the initiative has shown how beneficial it can be for a destination … The existing blueways attracted over 100,000 visitors in 2016, generating an incredible €3 million for the local economies. Further Blueways are in development on Lough Derg and on the Royal Canal and will be operational in 2018.”

She added: “The centralised base encourages recreational activity in Enniskillen – This hub is a stepping stone towards the development of the Enniskillen and Lough Erne Blueways.”

Ms. Livingstone explained that capacity building workshops have already taken place “in order to develop product to sell in conjunction with the activity being offered from the hub.” Further workshops will take place as the Blueways Ireland initiative develops across Lough Erne.

Ideally, this would lead to the development of packaged holiday experiences combining the activity out of the hub with hotels, bed and breakfasts, guest houses, cafés, restaurants in order to encourage the tourism potential of Enniskillen and Fermanagh. 

Enniskillen BID came on board when BID Manager Noelle McAloon consulted with local businesses last summer and found “a huge willingness for this to progress.”
“In the development of the Enniskillen BID business plan I spoke to a number of key stakeholder agencies to find out what they were currently doing within Enniskillen.  One of these meetings was with Waterways Ireland and during our discussion the Erne Blueway was mentioned,” said Ms. McAloon. 

“That first meeting took place in May 2016 and during my consultation with local businesses over the summer I asked them to voice an opinion of the proposed Erne Blueway and the idea of more water based activities in Enniskillen.  All consultations indicated a huge willingness for this to progress and businesses generally told me that they wanted to see more locals and visitors using the water in a safe manner. The Enniskillen BID Business plan sets out our commitment to support the development of the Blueway,” she added.

Ms. McAloon commented: “I am delighted that BID has partnered with Waterways Ireland on this pilot scheme of the Activity Hub. There is potential for businesses based in Enniskillen to benefit from families and visitors spending more time in the town and making this area a key visitor destination.”

For more information on developed Blueway destinations, visit www.bluewaysireland.org or visit the Enniskillen Blueway Activity Hub at Waterways Ireland HQ, 2 Sligo Road, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.