EastSide Tourism- finalist at Eastside Awards

We are delighted that our EastSide Greeters initiaitve through EastSide Tourism is a finalist at the 2020 Eastside Awards.

EastSide Tourism launched ‘EastSide Greeters’ in 2019, the first volunteer-led Greeter initiative of its kind in Northern Ireland. The overall objective of this Urban Villages funded project is to harness the power of east Belfast’s place identity, to increase civic pride and to create EastSide Ambassadors. 

EastSide Tourism has recruited a team of 10 local volunteer ‘Greeters’ all of whom are currently living in east Belfast. Each Greeter has a specialism which they are genuinely interested in e.g. nature / architecture etc. and all have received World Host accredited ‘Ambassador’ training.

The scheme itself enables visitors to request a ‘Greet’ with one of our local volunteer Greeters at any time of year – through VisitEastSide.com. These requests are received by EastSide Tourism who then match the perspective visitor with one of our local volunteer Greeters based on the information to hand. A bit like a tourist / local match-making service!

Each Greet lasts approx. 30 minutes and is hosted in EastSide Visitor Centre. They consist of a coffee and an informal chat, allowing our Greeters to share some local authentic insight on the area and also pass on some genuine recommendations based on the interests of the visitor.

Through this initiative we have also produced ‘A Local’s Guide to EastSide’ profiling local recommendations across east Belfast. 10,000 copies of this pocket-sized publication can be picked up in visitors centres, cafes, bars and other visitor attractions across the city.