She completed a master’s degree in Scottish Heritage and this, coupled with a travel industry trip to Northern Ireland a few years ago, made her even more aware of the wealth and depth of the region’s tourism offering.
To share her passion for Northern Ireland and Scotland, Alison set up her own travel company Linens and Larders Travel to design bespoke tours for visitors.
She explained how the focus of her business model is slow tourism, geared towards small groups looking for a unique travel experience. By partnering with local artisans who showcase traditional skills, including weaving, spinning, baking and cooking with locally sourced ingredients, Alison plans to take her visitors on roads less travelled.
“Local knowledge, a passion for showing off the area and excellent customer care are key to the visitor experience, ” she said.
Alison continued: “While I was working on my itineraries, I realised it could be very beneficial for me to have an accredited tour guiding qualification so decided to make the most of the lockdown and work towards achieving my qualification.”
It was not as straight forward as she first thought as there were no suitable short-term courses available in her local area. When she discovered that the eight-week course offered by Northern Regional College would be delivered online because the College was closed due to lockdown, she jumped at the chance to register.
“The course was ideal and exactly what I was looking for. In normal circumstances, this course would have been delivered in the classroom and I couldn’t have done it, so this was one of the few upsides to the pandemic!
“The course was delivered over Zoom and although it was only for eight weeks, we covered so much material, including a good overview of the tourism industry, health and safety and regulatory requirements, and how to prepare and deliver tour commentaries.
“As we move out of lockdown, people are starting to think about travelling again so I’m doing some preparatory work on different tours as I want to be ready to move when they decide to book. Doing the course has been a great way for me to focus and finetune my tours.
Travel and Tourism lecturer, Karen McLeod who delivered the course said she was delighted with the students’ 100% retention, success and achievement rate, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“Through a series of practical and interactive sessions on Zoom, all the required learning outcomes were met – including understanding the role of a Tour Guide, the of planning routes, itineraries and evaluation, and the health and safety considerations of the role.”
Although the OCN Tour Guiding course was introduced by the College in 2017 as a stand-alone course, it is now also offered as an additional qualification for course enrichment to Level 3 Extended Diploma Travel and Tourism students the College’s campuses in Newtownabbey and Ballymena.
“We strive for vocational excellence in all of our courses at the College and, for our Level 3 Travel and Tourism students, achieving at Tour Guiding qualification is an important aspect of that, greatly enhancing their employability in the tourism industry,” Karen continued.
“This tour guiding qualification will be especially relevant in the months ahead with the anticipated increase in ‘staycations’ and for some people, it could be an opportunity to reconnect with their own area, maybe even visit some local attractions for the very first time.”