This article is from page 14 of the 2007-03-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE Clare tourism industry is not pre- pared to deal with the consequences of Open Skies if it is brought in in the near future, according to Manager of Dromoland Castle and member of the Clare Tourism Council, Mark Nolan. Mr Nolan also believes that Open Skies would be of long-term benefit to tourism in the region if Govern- ment support is forthcoming in terms
of marketing and transport infrastruc- nb Cen
“If the change is to come soon, then we are not prepared. There is still a lot of uncertainty about when and how the changeover will actually happen,” he rEIOb
One of the critical things is to im- prove the infrastructure around Shan- non. The people who are using Dublin would prefer to fly out of anywhere ac- cept for Dublin but the infrastructure
must be there to allow people to get to S)aeeTeveleyee
“We are now competing with five or six airports around the country. It 1s no longer a situation of Shannon verses Dublin,” he said.
Despite the feeling in some quarters that the agreement will damage tour- ism in Clare, Mr Nolan is confident that it will be ultimately beneficial.
“This is really nothing new, we have heard it all before. I believe that it will
actually be good for business in the medium to long-term, but there will be some negative impacts in the short term,” he continued.
“It is very important that a marketing package be put in place to help main- tain the market in North America. We have been told 30, 40, 50 and 100 mil- lion for this at different times. Fifty five per cent of our business here in Dromoland comes out of North Amer- ica,’ he added.