Connacht Tribune
One out of five visitors to Ireland flock to Galway
One in five overseas visitors to Ireland last year came to Galway, making it the third most popular destination in Ireland in what was the busiest year yet for the Wild Atlantic Way since its inception.
Fáilte Ireland’s Chairman, Michael Cawley, the senior management team and the board of Fáilte Ireland – the National Tourism Development Authority – gathered in Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, last week for its quarterly meeting.
A number of representatives from local Galway tourism businesses from the region were invited to brief the Authority members on their season to date and their future business plans.
These included the Connemara Sands Hotel, the Renvyle House Hotel, Blath na Mara Seaweed, Udaras na Gaeltachta, Galway County Council and the Connemara Aran Islands Tourism Network.
The Authority told the meeting that the agency is continuing to work on the Visitor Experience Development Plan for the Connemara Coast and Aran Islands which was launched in 2018. It will identify the stand out features for the area and aims to increase visitor dwell time and spend.
Fáilte Ireland’s vision for the Wild Atlantic Way is to deliver sustainable growth to all areas of the West Coast for the benefit of local communities and businesses.
One of the agency’s main aims for Galway is to gain a broader spread of tourism across all parts of the county including Connemara Coast and the Aran Island and extend the season so that tourism businesses can stay open beyond the traditional summer season.
Fáilte Ireland would continue to invest in this, stressed Miriam Kennedy, Head of the Wild Atlantic Way at Fáilte Ireland.
“Last year was our strongest yet since we launched it in 2014, we had over 3.7m international visitors, over 4.7m domestic visitors and between them they spent €3bn, supporting over 80,000 jobs along the West Coast.
“Galway continues to be a popular tourist destination – 18% of overseas tourists to Ireland visited Galway in 2018, making it one of the three most popular counties in the country for overseas tourists.”
However, this had been a challenging year for the tourism industry particularly with uncertainty around Brexit.
“As the National Tourism Development Authority, we continue to work with the local industry to sustain Ireland as a high-quality, competitive and best in class tourism destination.
“We do this by supporting tourism enterprises to innovate and through delivering tailored programmes that help assess the risks, respond to changes, access tourists using the right channels and diversify into other markets.”
Over the last five years, the agency has invested amounts of between €1.95m and €73,000 on ten projects across the country, with the investment totalling €10.5m between 2015 and 2019.
This summer, Kylemore Abbey opened its new visitor experience with €1.7m Fáilte Ireland investment. It has also spent €1.9m in the Connemara National Park to develop of an additional 10.5 km of new trails, a children’s natural play area and carpark facilities. Both are now open for visitors year-round.
Fáilte Ireland has identified festivals as a key driver for tourism growth, particularly during off-season times. Over the past two years the agency has invested €729,000 into four Galway festivals – the Galway International Arts Festival, the Oyster Festival, the Galway Film Fleadh and the Vodafone Comedy Festival with a further €73,000 given to the two local authorities to distribute to local festivals.
The latest industry figures show that 38% of holiday makers stay in hotels with one fifth staying in guesthouses and B&Bs. Hotels are favoured by Americans and the British while the French and German tourists prefer to stay in homes.
In 2018, there were 84 hotels across Galway with 11,913 beds, 16 guesthouses with 425 beds, 122 B&Bs with 1,300 beds, 107 self-catering units with 544 beds, 14 hostels with 1,123 beds, four caravan and camping parks which can accommodate 799 people and a further 14 homes with the Irish Welcome standard with 595 beds.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
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Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
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