The purpose of this feasibility study was to investigate whether a modern cross-border pilgrimage tourism product and route could be sustainably developed between the town of Ferns in County Wexford, Ireland and the city of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, Wales, using the Stena Ferry which crosses the Irish Sea from Rosslare in Ireland to Fishguard in Wales as the link.
In order to inform this work, over 60 key stakeholders, evenly spread between the two territories were contacted, with follow up video conference calls. Stakeholder contacts were generated by the project officers in each territory. Questionnaires were sent to all, with 30 being returned completed.
We then combined our previous consultancy experience and lessons learnt from recent work on walking and cycling trails, the Wales Coast Path and the National Trails of Wales with the feedback from stakeholders to undertake an options appraisal based on what we learned.