This article is from page 21 of the 2011-09-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
THE management of the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience have issue a call to patriotic action in their bid to make the iconic tourism location one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
A day of action, designed to get Irish people to vote of the North Clare tourist attraction, is being organised for next Friday week, October 7, and management are asking people to support the cliffs, in “the national interest”.
A place as one of the final Seven Natural Wonders of the World is estimated to be worth tens of millions to the tourism industry in Clare – and it is estimated that success in the competition could bring thousands of extra tourists to Ireland each year.
“The vote isn’t looking too bad at the moment. It is not possible to see what position we are in at the moment but voting trends are recorded by the competition organisers and we have been going up in the voting trends in recent weeks,” said Geraldine Enright of the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience.
“We have been doing very well at attracting international votes but we need to keep it up. We are going to have a national vote day and we will be encouraging everyone to vote for the cliffs on that day, in the national interest.”
A series of events, talk and media stunts have been organised for October 7, which is hoped will kick off a major run of votes before the completion of the competition on November 11.
“We are contacting all primary
and secondary schools
in the country, we are
doing some promot
ing with Fáilte Ire
land and there will be
a number of national
radio broadcasts on
October 7 to promote
the voting,” continued
Geraldine.
“There will also be a
abseil down the side of
the National Conven
tion Centre in Dublin
to promote the voting. Someone will come down the side of the building with a big banner saying ‘Vote for the Cliffs’.
“The Cliffs are an iconic site in Ireland and we are pretty confident – we have made it to the top 28 so we are really hopeful that we can make it into the top 7. The spin-offs of this are massive. Fáilte Ireland have suggested that this could bring a 35 per cent increase to visitors not just to the Cliffs but to Ireland as well.”
On October 7 anyone who shows that they have voted for the Cliffs via text message will be admitted for free to the site.