Following on from Engage’s significant seminar series on travel and tourism in 2021 we are still being invited to take part in international tourism-related events and the latest one is a second interview with the WeGenerate podcast hosted by the City Destinations Alliance.

Engage was invited to take part in the podcast interviews by Sarah Frosh, the host of the series, who belongs to Group NAO with whom Engage worked during our seminar series Destination Liverpool: Tourists versus Residents?  Engage has already been interviewed on Monday 13th May by Sarah Frosh as part of the WeGenerate series and a 2nd interview, which took place on Tuesday 18th June, was run jointly with an amazing project, first launched in 2017 when Aarhus (Denmark’s second city) was European Capital of Culture, and as their legacy programme, is still impacting on the lives of tourists and residents alike in the city.

The Aarhus ReThinkers programme for volunteers now has 1800 citizens involved on a regular basis. It is incredible. Engage was asked to reflect upon how citizens and residents in Liverpool have been invited to take part in the tourism offer in our city during the conversation with Ulla Svenningsen Lund, the leader of the Visit Aarhus Voluntourism ReThinkers project. If you live in Aarhus you can volunteer to be a part of the city’s decision to be a welcoming and friendly place for everyone who visits or lives there, click HERE.

Liverpool did a wonderful job during the Eurovision Song Contest of involving around 500 local citizens taking part during the two weeks of the Euro festival events. We found a copy of the form describing what was required from those who were considering volunteering on the internet HERE but there doesn’t appear to be any continuation of the project anywhere. Nevertheless it was an extraordinary 2 weeks and everyone who took part as a volunteer valued and appreciated the work with which they were entrusted.

Our volunteer programme is quite different from Aarhus as theirs is an all-year-round process and not simply limited to special events. It also sends out a clear message to all residents that they are considered to be a significant part of the city’s offer to tourists and visitors. They are valued all the time and not just on an ad-hoc basis. There is a lot Liverpool can learn from Aarhus another former Capital of Culture, as we are!

We will upload a link to the podcast once it is published.

We did find this video on YouTube from 2023: