This article is from page 6 of the 2011-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE success of the Loophead Lighthouse visitor project that has been running on a pilot basis for the past seven weeks is set to be built on as Clare County Council and its partner bodies put plans in motion to develop a range of tourism products in place for the 2012 season.
That’s the message delivered this week by the local authority’s director of service for tourism, Ger Dollard, who has revealed that a wide-range of new visitor experiences could be in the pipeline as tourism interest groups bid to build on the success of lighthouse experience.
“We went into it thinking that we were going to spend € 20,000 or € 30,000 over the three months and lose it – we were willing to do this on the basis that we were trying to see if we could build something at Loophead,” Mr Dollard told The Clare People this week. “The fact that it has been so successful, every single box has been ticked. The big thing we learned is that there is a very strong tourism product in Loophead – it’s how we develop that,” he adds.
Up to date figures released by Clare County Council this Monday have revealed that 15,507 have visited the tourist attraction since it opened its doors to the public, with children making up 3,793 of these.
Now, a new range of visitor attractions are set to mushroom around the lighthouse, with the county council director of service revealing that the challenge is now to “marry everything together, develop it into something on the tip of West Clare that can financially sustain itself”.
“It’s hoped to rebuild the lookout post between now and next summer – that’s part of history being put back in place. There’s a walk planned around the lighthouse and in this we have worked with local community and are getting it costed,” said Mr Dollard. “That should be in place for next summer. We have been talking to a geology group – a lot of geology work is being done in the area. It’s an element that could developed in a display of the geological history of the area.
“We have been talking to Inis environmental consultants who are working with UCC – they have ideas about a bird observatory on the site and we are seeing how that could be incorporated in an overal visitor product.
“Our biggest problem is that we have too much stuff between maritime, geology, the lighthouse itself, the flora, the fauna, the walks, the lookout post, the coastwatch service. It’s how you bring it all together in a coherent way and to try to prevent the natural beauty of the Loophead area being destroyed,” he added.