Explore the DIBEST Digital Toolkit
WDC-led DIBEST support helped Within The Village strengthen its digital marketing, improve its booking experience and build stronger relationships with guests.
At a glance
Location: Roundstone, County Galway | Sector: Tourism / Accommodation | Support: Website, booking system, digital marketing and CRM | Impact: Increased website traffic, booking performance and social media engagement
Within The Village is a year-round eco-luxe accommodation business in Roundstone, County Galway. Its collection of carefully repurposed heritage buildings has been part of village life for generations.
Following a significant investment in restoring and reopening the property, co-founder Maria Murphy sought practical support to strengthen the business’s digital marketing and customer communications.
Through DIBEST (Digital Innovation for Blue Enterprises and Social Tourism), led by the Western Development Commission, Within The Village accessed training and expertise across website development, social media, customer relationship management and marketing.
The support helped the business to reconfigure their website and integrated booking system, while also developing more effective ways to use customer data to maintain engagement with guests throughout the year.
“It was great to get involved with DIBEST. We had invested so much in the build and needed help in finding suitable suppliers that would help us with our website, social media, customer relationship management and marketing. All of the online training that was available monthly was exactly what we needed and allowed us to undertake a lot of this work ourselves.”
The changes improved operational efficiency and the guest experience, with increased website traffic, stronger booking performance and significant growth in social media engagement. The programme also helped the business communicate its sustainability efforts more effectively to visitors.
Networking was another valuable part of the programme, connecting Within The Village with tourism businesses facing similar challenges across Ireland and the wider Atlantic region.
“Through the DIBEST programme, we realised that there were many other similar properties and small businesses like ours across Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal that had many of the same ideas and challenges. The physical networking side of the programme through the in-person country meetings and the 3-day workshop on wheels around Kerry in April allowed us to meet and share our stories.”
For the WDC, Within The Village demonstrates how targeted digital support, knowledge exchange and collaboration can help small businesses build capability, improve performance and strengthen their resilience. As part of the project, we developed a Digital Toolkit for businesses that is accessible free of charge. The DIBEST Digital Toolkit brings together practical resources and guidance to help businesses develop their digital capabilities and make the most of digital opportunities.
About DIBEST
DIBEST was an Interreg Atlantic Area project led by the Western Development Commission. It supported more than 70 tourism microenterprises across western Ireland and the wider Atlantic region through digital training, mentoring, networking and peer learning.
