This article is from page 17 of the 2014-08-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
THE Cliffs of Moher have been selected as the favourite place in Ireland to bring foreign visitors.
According to the results of the fifth National Heritage sur vey, more than 30 per cent of people say that they would take tourists to see the world famous tour ist at t raction.
Indeed, the Cliffs of Moher would seem to have developed a cer t ai n addictive qualit y for visitors with 22 per cent of those sur veyed saying they visited the Cliffs more than 10 ti mes this year.
The Cliffs of Moher have also been identified as Ireland’s most scar y heritage site with 79 per cent of people admit ting that it is t he heritage site they are most afraid of.
This news comes as t he Cliffs of Moher reveals that it is on course to at tract more than one million tourists to Clare this year – the largest number of visitors since records began.
“It’s great that t he nation are continuing to t ake enor mous pride in our herit age sites and landmarks and enjoying showing these off to overseas visitors. Our heritage sites are vital to the tourism industr y in Ireland but also in defining where we have come from and t he r ich legacy we hold i n Ireland,” said David Lane of Ecclesiastical Ireland.
“The research highlights the need for heritage proper t y owners to continue to protect the sites to ensure t hese remain prominent in t he lives of Irish people.”
Newgrange in County Meat h was voted as Ireland’s favourite heritage site, while al most all of those sur veyed, 99 per cent, rate Ireland’s heritage as ver y impor tant to the tourism indust ry.
A tot al of 46 per cent of people believe t here should be st ricter laws gover ning the protection of heritage sites, while 98 per cent of people thi nk t he Gover nment needs to conti nue to provide tax incentives to heritage proper ty owners regarding the maintenance and upkeep of t hei r heritage proper ty.