This article is from page 14 of the 2008-09-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
FEARS were raised yesterday that Clare County Council may not be able to furnish the debt entered into in order to construct the Cliffs of Moher Visitors Experience. Responding to a motion put forward by Cllr Martin Conway (FF), the lo- cal authority revealed that visitor numbers at the world famous tour- ism site have dropped by more than
14 per cent all ready this year.
This represents a year-on-year drop of almost 100,000 visitors during August, June and July this year.
Questions have now been raised concerning the local authority’s abil- ity to furnish the debt should the cen- tre struggle to break even this year.
“The Cliffs of Moher has suffered badly because of the global down- turn. In May of this year there was a year-on-year drop of more than
5,000 people. In June that drop has risen to 34,000; more than 30,000 in July and 25,000 in August. This is a massive massive drop of 14 per cent,” said Cllr Conway.
“IT am concerned about this for a number of reasons. Last year the visi- tors experience just broke even. Now with the downturn in the economy and especially in tourism, is there a plan in place to deal with this situ- ation?”
“IT am also very concerned that this is the start of a serious downward trend and I would like to know what the directors are doing. Are they re- marketing this more for an Irish or UK visitor rather than for the Ameri- can visitor?
“Is there a contingency plan to deal with the new private park and ride facility? If that is built 1s there a plan to deal with the financial implica- tions of this? I would hope that we would give this private company stiff competition and seriously consider lowering our prices to make parking very competitive at the cliffs.”
Groresvaaternlebercameyemm seu immosCOla (erm Ovens Joe Arkins (FG) raised questions both about the local authorities abil- ity to furnish the borrowing under- taking as part of the Cliffs of Moher project and the future viability of this Nur
In response, a spokeswoman from Clare County Council said that they were monitoring the situation.
‘The trend here reflects what is hap- pening nationally and internationally at the moment,’ she said.
“We have revisited the marketing strategy and we are looking at under- taking a number of joint promotional initiatives. We are looking at promot- ing the cliffs in France and Germany through the Clare Tourist Forum and also in America.”