This article is from page 18 of the 2007-11-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
THE TOURISM arm of Shannon Development suffered a 42 per cent drop in profits last year according to the most recent returns to the Com- panies Office.
Shannon Heritage’s profits dropped from €196,000 in 2005 to €113,000 last year.
However, a major contributory fac- tor to the drop in profits and drop in attendances at its visitor attractions across the region was the closure of O’Brien’s Tower at the Cliffs of Mo- her in 2006 to facilitate the construc- tion of the new visitor centre.
The accounts show that 81,000 tourists visited O’Brien’s Tower in 2005 and the absence of these tour- ists last year resulted in the overall number of tourists visiting day-time attractions dropping from 512,000 in 2005 to 449,000 in 2006.
Overall numbers going to night
time attractions also showed a mar- ginal drop from 66,999 in 2005 to 65,168 last year.
The combined total for day-time and night-time attractions dropped from 625,615 in 2005 to 562,139 last year.
The profit last year of €113,000 put Shannon Heritage on a firmer finan- cial footing with accumulated profits now of €847,000.
The accounts show that the com- pany secured a gross profit last year of €8.9 million, however, Shannon Heritage’s “administration expens- es” increased from €7.9 million to €8.8 million. The company now has €1.353 million, while staff costs last year were €5.2 million employing 210.
In spite of the drop in profits, the statement accompanying the ac- counts states that Shannon Heritage “recorded one of its best results for
many years’.