Festivals help keep Galway tourism afloat

Date Published: 06-Aug-2009

THE month of July may have been a washout in terms of weather, but the festival season granted a windfall for the tourism sector in both the city and county.

In the wake of Race Week, Fáilte Ireland said anecdotal evidence would suggest the run of major events and festivals from the Ocean Race right up to the August Bank Holiday weekend had provided a major boost to hotels and the hospitality industry.

General Manager of Fáilte Ireland West, Fiona Monaghan said the city had benefited most from the last number of weeks, but she said tour operators in the likes of Clifden and the islands had also reported satisfactory visitor numbers.

“We don’t have actual figures at this stage, but after any major weekend or event, we would do a call-around and see how people have got on, and the one thing we can say is that Galway is doing better than most other parts of the country,” she said.

“The fact that this year, we had the Volvo Ocean Race and that that ran into the Film Fleadh, the Arts Festival and then the Races made for a good season.”

Ms Monaghan said even though attendances at the Galway Races last week were down more than a quarter on last year, most in the hotel and hospitality industry had reported an exceptionally busy week.

“The sentiment among city hotels is that they did experience good occupancy that held its own compared with 2008, but that their rates were down, so they might not have made as much money, but there was very good value there for the consumer.

“Outside the city, in rural areas, things were a bit slower, but Clifden for example seems to have had a very good Bank Holiday weekend and the Aran Islands have been very popular destinations.”

Ms Monaghan added that…