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 Mayo County Council have announced a new online initiative with the Western Development Commission (WDC) to connect Mayo with the three and a half million people worldwide who have a link with the county and position Mayo as an attractive location for investment and tourism. The central platform will be a new website, www.mayo.ie, which will use the latest technology to showcase the wealth of talent in County Mayo as a basis for firmly positioning Mayo as a destination and location of choice in the minds of people throughout the world.
Peter Hynes, Mayo County Manager said: “Mayo.ie is a very progressive project which has the potential to deliver real impact and results for the county and its residents. The site will bring together information on everything ‘Mayo’, so that it will be the ‘Master Mayo Website’ both for local people and for the ‘Mayo Global Clan’. Irrespective of their location the website will provide a forum for people with an interest in Mayo to connect and interact with each other. All of which will have positive benefits for the county by raising our profile and building on the positive image we already enjoy worldwide.”
Joanne Grehan of the WDC said: “This new website dovetails with the WDC’s LookWest.ie initiative to promote Ireland’s Western Region as a great place to live, work and do business. As well as working alongside the national effort to attract trade, tourism and investment into Ireland, LookWest.ie successfully works in partnership with regional stakeholders, such as Mayo County Council, to raise the profile of the Region. Such partnerships strengthen our work in attracting business, investment and people to the West and position the regional economy for recovery.”
Ms Grehan said that since its launch in 2004, LookWest.ie has become the voice of Ireland's Western Region evolving over the past number of years to actively engage with the Region's Diaspora through the website, ezine and social media channels. “We anticipate that the Mayo.ie initiative will become a successful template that can be rolled out throughout the wider Western Region and we look forward to working with other counties,” she said. Ms Grehan added that the initiative could also become a model for local authorities nationally.
Mayo County Council says that the website, which will launch in May, will give people the opportunity to foster relationships with other Mayo people globally as well as giving Mayo businesses the opportunity to promote and sell their products to a world wide audience.
Mayo.ie will be the international shop window for Mayo opening up sales channels previously not available to many businesses in Mayo, who will now be able to list details of their products and services, sell to a world wide audience and network with potential customers and partners.
“There is a growing trend towards convergence on the web whereby people are now almost as likely to access a website from their smart phone or tablet as from their PC. Mayo.ie is being developed in such a way as to allow people stay connected to Mayo no matter how, where or when they go online,” said Mr Hynes.
Among the features of the website are Mayo event listings and Mayo news from around the world, genealogy resources, discussion boards, global business listings, social networking links, formal and ad hoc group listings, sporting results from Mayo and abroad, and a Wiki guide to Mayo and Mayo communities worldwide.
Mayo County Council is asking people to encourage friends with ties or a grá for Mayo to join the Mayo Worldwide Community group on either Facebook or LinkedIn (search for ‘Mayo Worldwide Community’). Alternatively people can sign up for regular email newsletters, share ideas or make enquiries by contacting
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The WDC congratulated Mayo County Council on developing the project and said that Mayo County Council was to the fore in supporting the WDC vision for Ireland's Western Region as a truly dynamic and innovative Region.
Mr Hynes concluded: “While there are many social networking sites available, this is the first site specifically designed for Mayo people – both those at home and those across the Globe. Because the website is so targeted, businesses and people who fully engage with it should see considerable returns for their time – especially small businesses who might otherwise find that accessing world markets can be an expensive option. People can create their own personal profile outlining where they are in the world and their interest or connection with Mayo. We expect the website to deliver enormous benefits both economically and socially, and we hope that Mayo will see the benefits for many years to come.” Join the community:
For further information, please contact: Martina Hughes
Project Manager
Mayo Diaspora Project
Mayo County Council
+353(0)87 6468551
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