We have had a fantastic time working on the OUTPACE Project, this one has been an absolute pleasure from start to finish. Although we didn’t get to meet our project partners in real life, due to the pandemic, we had some dynamic meetings online and we discovered so much about pop culture tourism.
The overall aim of OUTPACE is to produce a rise in the number of tourism businesses which develop innovative products & services based on the opportunities afforded by pop culture tourism, thus generating more market-responsive & dynamic regional tourism economies. We know that tourism has been decimated due to COVID, but it has also given people a chance to rethink their tourism businesses, and pop culture tourism can provide a way to turn a simple idea into a winning one. Before COVID, pop culture tourism was entering a period of exponential growth across Europe due to the popularity of movies, TV shows and books like Harry Potter, Games of Thrones and Star Wars.
Did you know that Netflix gained a whopping 36 million subscribers in 2020?! This has fired up the imagination of the viewers and when the time comes for people to travel again pop culture tourism is poised for renewed and continued exponential growth in the coming years.
Over the course of OUTPACE we heard from a number of businesses who have embraced pop culture as a way to appeal to tourists. We wrote a series of blog posts ‘Innovating Tourism through Pop Culture in North West Ireland’, where we explored the opportunities and initiatives which support pop culture tourism in the North West of Ireland with a particular focus on the counties of Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon and North Mayo. https://www.popculturetourism.eu/innovating-tourism-through-pop-culture-in-north-west-ireland/
We also invite you to visit the website and avail of the many free learning resources available to you:
You can download the OUTPACE Manual which will give you a comprehensive guide to pop culture tourism: https://www.popculturetourism.eu/resource-pack-en/
You can explore the Open Education Resource, this is the first co-created European course to cover the topic of pop culture tourism. A vast and interesting area to explore, we have honed in on some of the most innovative aspects of pop culture tourism positioning them in the context of the current tourism climate. https://www.popculturetourism.eu/open-education-resources/
The Training Programme Includes:
- 6 free to use modules which cover 30 learning topics
- a facilitators guide for tourism trainers and educators to help you deliver this programme in a number of educational settings – e.g. online, classroom or blended
- peer learning insights from pop culture tourism promoters
- over 50 case studies
- 18+ learner exercises
- expert insights from Lithuania, UK, Ireland, Iceland and Sweden
You can also watch our curated collection of Film and Tourism Inspired Videos: https://www.popculturetourism.eu/video-resources/
We’d like to thank our OUTPACE Project partners for their hard work and dedication to the project:
Canice Consulting
VILNIUS TECH
University of Greenwich
Icelandic Tourism Research Centre
Swedish Tourism Innovation Center
