Cleaning Up for Sustainable Tourism

Environmentally minded students swapped the classroom for the beach as part of a sustainable tourism project.

Twenty-eight students from the Level 2 Traineeship in Travel & Tourism and the Pearson BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Travel & Tourism from SERC Downpatrick Campus, travelled to Tyrella Beach as part of their project based learning (PBL) activity and undertook a beach clean. 

Lecturer Colum Toner explained, “The project centres around promoting sustainable tourism.  The students decided to undertake a litter pick to show the environmental impact of tourism on a local natural attraction. 

“We were all shocked to see how much rubbish we collected on the beach in a morning - a relatively brief time.    We cleared six bags of debris which included everything from shoes to a yoga mat."

He added, “Some of the students had never taken part in a beach clean before, but the activity brought to the fore the issues of attracting people to what should be a beautiful clean beach and the impact of visitors leaving  their rubbish behind them."

Colum continued,  “Sustainable tourism is integrated into the travel and tourism programmes here at SERC and will be an important element for careers in the sector.”

Colm and the students would like to thank Newry Mourne and Down District Council for supplying the equipment for the beach clean.

Above: (L-R) Damien Corrigan, Megan Pagendam, Chloe Brannigan, Joshua Jennings, Zara De Carvalho and Mia Mageean with some of the rubbish they collected at Tyrella Beach.