THE CHAIRMAN OF Fáilte Ireland, Michael Cawley, said that something has to be done about the cobble streets in Temple Bar in Dublin.
Temple Bar
Speaking about the Temple Bar area as a tourist sport on RTÉ’s The Business, Cawley said:
The cobblestones, for example, anecdotally women don’t like to walking in stilettos on those, can’t walk with stilettos on those and if men wear stilettos I am sure they find it difficult as well…
He said that it was a “practical problem we have to fix”.
While he said it was great news that Ireland had featured in the top five places to visit in the world next year by Lonely Planet, he said that we still have to be critical about what we offer.
Speaking about Temple Bar, he said it has been “fantastically successful” over the last 20 years, but said their research shows it is also putting people off coming here.
“The image is somewhat off putting for certain sections of tourists coming here,” he said, adding however, that it also attracts a certain section of tourists that they want to retain.
He said that they hope that this year tourism will be the best yet, even better than the peak in 2007. So far this year, tourism is up 9% on last year, so he said there is every hope of attaining a record year.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say