THE 2011 Isle of Man Walking Festival has been described as «the best yet» as it drew to a close last night in Douglas.
«We had a record number of walkers, a record number of volunteer guides and a record number of positive comments,» said festival organiser Mick Salmon. «It has been a wonderful week which just got better and better and today’s final day could not have been more enjoyable.»
The final day of the festival was blessed with fabulous weather conditions as the record number of 225 walkers completed the final leg of their week of walking around the Island’s pathways, hills, glens and woodland. The numerous different routes covered during the five days took in hill climbs, coastal pathways, forests, woodland, wetlands, glens, valleys and country lanes as well as visits to Manx heritage sites such as Tynwald Hill, Peel Castle and remote ancient monuments.
Speaking at the final social event of the week last night at the Villa Marina, Mick Salmon paid tribute to the volunteer guides who had helped throughout the week and particularly thanked the walkers who had come to the Island for the first time. He told a packed room, «I hope this week has helped you see what a beautiful island we live in and why we are so proud of it and why we like to show it off to as many people as possible. I hope you’ve enjoyed the choice of walks, the beautiful scenery and the Manx hospitality and that this has helped you understand why we in the Isle of Man love living here so much» - a comment which was greeted with spontaneous loud applause.
«We have been talking about coming to the Isle of Man for years and this year was our first ever visit,” said experienced walkers a couple from Kent who have attended walking festivals elsewhere in the UK and took part in the 90-mile Coastal Path walk which covered the entire coastline of the Isle of Man over five days. I’m sorry we left it so long. We will definitely be coming back again. We had no idea just how beautiful the Isle of Man is, and the walking was just fantastic. We now want to come back and explore some of the rest of the Island we didn’t see. There’s lots more that we didn’t get to visit. There’s no way you could see it all in one week.»
They also paid tribute to the organisation of the Isle of Man event. «The organisation and the volunteers were absolutely first class,» they said. «At the Isle of Wight walking festival you just turned up on the morning of the first day and started walking. Here, there was a really informative registration night the day before the festival started and we were introduced to the guides and met all the other walkers and were given a really warm welcome by the Manx people. It was very well organised and I have heard lots of the walkers saying the same. We will definitely be telling other walkers about the Isle of Man.»
Walkers who completed the Coastal Path with their certificates last night
Around 50% of the walkers in this year’s festival were visiting the Isle of Man for the first time - a statistic which has been very encouraging for the Department of Tourism.
«The fact that so many people came here for the first time is very positive,» said Geoff Corkish MHK, political member for the Department. «We have had really positive feedback all week about the festival and every year we attract more and more walkers to the Isle of Man. It is a major success story for Isle of Man tourism.»
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