This article is from page 16 of the 2012-03-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
CLARE faces an uphill battle if it is to regain the international tourists that have been lost to the county over the last 10 years. According to the Lahinch hotelier Michael Vaughan, who was elected national president of the Irish Hotel Federation last week, a new cooperative approach to tourism in Clare will need to take place before we start winning back the international tourists. “Tourism has been declining in Clare for seven or eight years now. This decline has been masked a bit by the buoyant domestic market but the flight situation has really made the situation worse,” said Michael. “We need to link our walkways, our cycling routes, our surfing holidays and package them more so that when people come into the county, they can get a real sense of the different touring loops that offer the tourists a whole package for the area.” Fáilte Ireland is currently piloting a project entitled ‘The Wild Atlantic Ways’, which Michael Vaughan hopes could be a major benefit to Clare once it is rolled out. “This is a series of iconic road-trips all along the west coast that will tie into festivals and other things happening in a locality. “The idea is to map out a few iconic routes through the county and provide people with a plan that tourists could follow. “So if a tourist was to base himself in Doolin, let’s say, he could see very quickly that there were two more days of activities for him to do in the area and plan like that,” continued Michael. “It is that type of awareness of product that we need to get better at in Clare. This is about tying together what we already have in the county. It’s about looking at things and packaging them in a different way. “Tourists in Germany plan in this way but they won’t go to a place until they know that there is an experience to be had in that area. We need to give them that information about Clare. “Fáilte Ireland are rolling this plan out on a pilot basis in Connemara next year but I know that Clare is being looked at very closely by them and is prime for this sort of investment.”