the final word

jennifer mckeever, airporter

Joined-up, strategic thinking can yield powerful results. When working together towards a common goal or objective, people and organisations can combine their efforts to make significant progress. Over the past year, we have seen how important collaborative work is for everyone in our society.

The public sector and government departments in Northern Ireland have long been criticised for working in silos, not reaching across or looking outside of their own lanes to get things done. Whether we believe these criticisms are fair or not, we can agree that tunnel vision of any kind can produce second-rate policy and will not result in the best outcome for our towns, cities, and communities across Northern Ireland. As we leave lockdown and rebuild our economy post-Covid, it’s vital that everyone in our region pulls in the same direction, with the same goal in mind: unleashing the full potential of the North West.

Emerging from the other side of the pandemic, it feels as if this part of the world is on the cusp of real growth, ready to turbocharge our region and our economy and prepare it for the new decade. And with some joined up thinking between the public and private sector, between government, business, and civic society, I firmly believe we can recover better than before. Pre-pandemic, the North West had a burgeoning and world-class tourism offer, with a thriving ecosystem of visitor attractions, accommodation options, hospitality venues, improving and expanding connectivity, and a skilled and talented workforce. While Covid has undeniably set this progress back, there are opportunities for us to capitalise on, starting right now.

This summer period will be one of the most important for businesses in the wider tourism and hospitality sector in a generation. And it will require joined up thinking between bars and restaurants, hotels, travel operators, and other stakeholders to fully maximise it. The North West is uniquely placed on the island of Ireland, straddling two jurisdictions and being the meeting point of the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coastal Route, routes which thousands of visitors flock to each year. Derry must position itself again as the leading visitor destination on each of these routes and reclaim the trajectory we were on before 2020. As a past President, and in my current role as a board member, I’ve also seen first-hand the results of joined-up thinking within Chamber and across the North West more broadly. Just six months ago, our Chamber signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding with our colleagues in the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce.

This commitment to developing and lifting up the entire North West City Region benefits us all and will lead to real, tangible results. Already, our two Chambers, in collaboration with Letterkenny Institute of Technology and Ulster University, are developing and supporting a Masters research project to identify and examine cross-border industry clusters across the North West, with a specific focus on fintech.

Working in tandem like this, identifying our strengths and building on them together, proves the power of joined-up thinking. And it is initiatives like these that will unlock the full potential of our shared region as we look to recover from the pandemic. The North West is emerging as one of the island’s prime locations to start a family, to work, to study, to set up a business, and to invest in. Therefore, it’s up to all of us to make sure we make our region as attractive as possible for people and organisations who want to live, work, and do business in the North West.

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