Research for a proposed ten-hour "AI for Tourism" short course frames tourism as sharing "the story of people and place," leveraging generative AI and regional datasets to help rural Tipperary communities preserve and transmit inherited traditions—music, storytelling, and local identity within Ireland's Hidden Heartlands.
Living Heritage & Rural Cohesion
The research explicitly treats cultural heritage not as static artifacts, but as a living, moving practice carried from past to present and reused to sustain rural livelihoods and social cohesion.
- Community Storytelling: Utilizing digital archives, regional oral histories, and community knowledge to create dynamic tourist experiences.
- Ireland's Hidden Heartlands: Highlighting local folklore, traditional music, and townscape histories across County Tipperary.
- Economic Resilience: Empowering small tourism operators and local heritage groups to produce engaging digital media using modern AI tools.
Collaborative Obsidian Vault Framework
Part of this research stream is supported by a collaborative Obsidian Vault designed to reconcile heritage preservation, community values, and local economic development.
The vault acts as a knowledge graph linking historical archives, geographic points of interest, community narratives, and course modules—providing a open, structured platform for collaborative rural research.