South Dublin County Council welcomes increase in tourism figures
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South Dublin County Council welcomes increase in tourism figures
(May 29th 2015) South Dublin County Council has welcomed the latest Fáilte Ireland figures which show an increase in visitor numbers to Dublin so far this year.
Welcoming the figures, South Dublin’s chief executive, Daniel McLoughlin said that the local authority has been playing a key role in the promotion of tourism locally and looks forward to growing visitor numbers further through its five year Tourism Strategy launched in April this year. “The re-development of Rathfarnham Castle, scheduled to reopen in June and planned initiatives in the form of a Dublin Mountains Visitor Centre, the Clondalkin Round Tower Visitor Centre, the Dodder and Grand Canal Greenways and many other proposals will benefit local businesses and communities”, he added.
“We’ve been working with Fáilte Ireland and our partners locally to promote South Dublin County as a tourism destination and we are delighted that this seems to be paying off with an increase in visitor numbers,” he said. “We are also busy working in collaboration with the business community and a network of local and national agencies to further develop our tourism potential. From driving festivals and events like our Red Line Book Festival and our Summer of Heritage Programme that support employment in the region, local government support is also critical to the success of a range of initiatives which support enterprise and economic development at a local level.”
Latest CSO figures have recently revealed that the number of trips made to Ireland in the first three months of 2015 is steadily increasing and it’s expected to be a bumper year for Irish tourism.
The statistics showed than 1.53 million trips were made to Ireland between January and March, up 14.1% (188,800) on the same period last year. This increase follows solid growth in the number of trips to Ireland last year, which was up 7.2% compared to 2013.
Visitors from Britain represented almost half of all trips made between January and March 2015, with 725,800 British visitors travelling to Ireland,, up 14.2% year-on-year.
Residents of the United States and Canada made up a further 12.5% (191,200) of visitors, rising by 6.9% compared to the same quarter of last year.
Meanwhile visitors from Germany accounted for 5.6% of all trips, up 4.5% from 2014.
Meanwhile, visits from Italy saw the highest rate of growth in the quarter, up 36.2% year-on-year to 59,800.
“We want to further increase visitor numbers and promote the identity of South Dublin County and its visitor attractions through participation in county, national and international tourism initiatives. We’re working to forge closer partnerships between public, private and voluntary sectors to provide, promote and support the development of tourism and recreation infrastructure across the County,” added Chief Executive Daniel McLoughlin.
“We are also in the process of assessing applications for funding under the Community Tourism Initiative for the Diaspora. This initiative, launched last year, builds on the community involvement legacy of The Gathering 2013 and is a joint partnership between South Dublin County Council, IPB Insurance and Fáilte Ireland. Now in its second year, the scheme provides a national fund of €1m to support local community-based events and festivals each year and we look forward to welcoming the very many overseas visitors to our County who will be attending events supported by this fund this summer. ”
ENDS
For further information contact:
The Communications Unit by email at communications@sdublincoco.ie
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