Derry Walls and Museum of Free Derry major draws that could be better promoted says Conor Murphy

Derry Walls and Museum of Free Derry major draws that could be better promoted says Conor Murphy.

Transcript

00:00 >> Well, I think those kind of local political tours, the cultural tours,

00:05 they actually have the opportunity to bring tourism benefits and the benefits

00:09 of tourism spend into areas which not necessarily have had that, haven't had

00:14 the kind of peace dividend. And without probably a huge amount of promotion,

00:19 things like the black taxi tours on the falls and the Shankles are, I think,

00:23 the second biggest attraction in Belfast, without being really seriously promoted.

00:27 So I don't doubt and I'm sure in Derry as well, that experience of the

00:31 walls, but also the free Derry Museum

00:33 can be better promoted as well. And as I said, they have the benefit of

00:37 bringing jobs and income into areas which haven't

00:39 benefited from in the past. So yes, absolutely, as part of the strategy

00:45 going forward, we will look at the issue as I get all of the

00:48 sensitivities around political tours and cultural tours, but they are an area

00:51 of interest for people coming here and they're managed well in other parts

00:55 of the world, they're managed well in the south, where I'm sure you're familiar

00:59 with a lot of the tours in Dublin around sites that were in conflict

01:03 there. So I think these are important, they're attractions, there is a greater

01:07 curiosity among international visitors about the history and the culture of

01:11 places as well as the sense of place, and I think we need to

01:14 do all we can to promote them.