Traffic costing Galway millions in lost business

Date Published: 01-Mar-2012

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

MAJOR tourism and conference business, worth tens of millions of euro annually, could be lost to the city because of ongoing traffic snarl-ups, it has been warned this week.

Hundreds of people, including several exhibitors, attending last weekend’s Irish Skipper Expo fishing conference in Salthill, complained of long delays as they made their way through the city on Friday.

A spokesperson for the organisers of the conference – Mara Media – told the Galway City Tribune that there had been several complaints of traffic delays from people attending.

“The main problems seemed to have been on Friday morning and afternoon as people were arriving for the conference. There were a lot of delays,” said the spokesperson for Mara Media.

The conference at the Galway Bay Hotel – that attracted over 4,500 people to the city last weekend – brought an estimated injection of €2m to the local economy, in the heart of the tourist off-season.

This week, a local councillor said that several contacts had been made to him indicating that delegates would not relish the prospect of coming back to Galway, solely because of the traffic problems.

“The message was the same from all of them. They loved Galway; they loved the hotels, pubs and restaurants; they loved the scenery and character of the city and region, but the traffic situation just soured everything for them,” said Cllr. Padraig Conneely.

“If we don’t tackle this ongoing nightmare as a matter of urgency, the end result will be that millions and millions of euro will be lost to the city in the tourism/conference business. It’s such a shame, seeing that we have so much else going for us,” said Cllr. Conneely.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.