Developing the lakelands 'super-brand'
by Danielle Harney Updated: Wednesday, 1st December, 2010 5:30pm
A nationwide phone survey is being carried out on 1,000 people at the moment to determine why domestic tourists come to, or stay away from, Athlone.
The survey is being carried out by Fáilte Ireland in a bid to find out what attracts and what turns people off about the Midlands town.
There is a concentrated effort to promote Athlone as a longer-stay destination within what is the Lakelands and Inland Waterways super-region and the research will be used as part of a new five-year tourism strategy for the region.
Fáilte Ireland and Waterways Ireland presented the new strategy to locals in the Hodson Bay Hotel last Friday, but admitted that attracting tourists to the midlands was a “difficulty”.
Martin Dennany, Marketing and Communications Director with Waterways Ireland, said that the super region brand was established three years ago because the organisation felt that there was a gap in the promotion and marketing the region brand abroad.
He said that along with Fáilte Ireland, Shannon Development, the Northern Ireland Tourism Board, local chambers and local councils, an idea was born to develop inland lakes and waterways as one destination.
Kevin Kidney, Head of Operations in East and Midlands for Fáilte Ireland, said that as far as the group was concerned, there was capital funding available to them for a domestic campaign promoting the Lakelands and Inland Waterways region next year.
“The difficulty is how do you bring tourists/visitors to the centre part of Ireland - tourists traditionally go to the South, or West or Northwest.
The one common link this region has is the to develop the lakes and waterways.”
He said the new strategy was being launched to secure buy-in from the local trade and tourist providers. He urged tourism providers, restaurants, accommodation providers to use the Lakelands and Waterways Ireland terminology and phraseology.
“This partnership is even more important for the future, important for increasing the number of visitors to the area, support existing businesses and to help emerging businesses,” he said.
He said that the strategy was essential in this climate.
“It’s about increasing visitor numbers, sustaining existing businesses and helping emerging businesses. The need to sustain and grow is something we can only do together,” he said. “But the key success to me is partnership.”
Damien Brennan from Fáilte Ireland’s Mullingar office, said that there was a “very active working group to develop this hub” of Athlone and Lough Ree, who will be meeting up with the tourist body in the new year.
This group is made up of local tourism providers, businesses, retailers and community groups.
Mr Kidney said that once the studies were completed with the recommendations for each area, they would be taken to each county manager and then be made available online in around three months’ time.
Éanna Rowe, Product Development Manager with Waterways Ireland, said that cruising was the “hook” to get people to visit the region.
He said that private boating brings in €44 million per annum, the hire cruise market earns €20 million per annum both of which in turn creates €50 million in indirect spending.
“Leisure activities are a huge growth industry, which is good for the region. There’s huge potential in what the lakelands can offer,” he said.
He said that a product development study of the Lough Ree/Mid-Shannon area will take place and then the findings will be implemented. He said the study needs to be relevant to the region, integrated with all agencies, and a product audit to find out what’s missing will be carried out, as well as a landscape and eco-sensitivity study.
“We will identify a need for activity hubs, the development of trails, walkways, cycleways, canoeing, land access, wildlife and ecology of each area, develop a Christian heritage trail and castles,” he said.
He said that 120,000 visitors visit Clonmacnoise every year, but a very small number of them stay in the locality. “We need to grow tourism, we need to grow the length of their stays,” he added.
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