The OPW Minister says his department are exploring ways to boost tourism in Kinsale.
Patrick O’Donovan met with members of County Council, Fáilte Ireland and Kinsale Chamber of Commerce at Charles Fort in the past hour to discuss strategies for increasing the number of visitors to the town.
Issues such as carparking, long traffic jams in the town at peak times and the dereliction of sites like James’ Fort were raised as matters that need to be tackled.
The meeting also heard calls for a long-discussed relief road to be reconsidered.
Speaking to RedFM News, OPW Minister Patrick O’Donovan outlines how his department and the other stakeholders will work towards putting a plan together by October:
"To see how we might be able to put more money into the monuments that we have, make sure that we promote them properly, make sure that they're advertised to the satisfaction of the people locally. The County Council then I suppose have a responsibility around traffic and it's no secret of traffic obviously comes with its own issues. Fáilte Ireland are in the process of completing their destination plan and they have identified a number of different actions together with the people that are living locally. They're working through that."
Liam Edwards is the owner of Jim Edwards restaurant and chairman of Kinsale Tourism.
He told RedFM News that the town is doing well this summer and is keen to attract even more visitors:
"Kinsale is doing very well. It has it's issues. I mean, that's why one of the reasons we brought Patrick down was it's traffic issues. It has parking issues into town, but in general it will look we know Kinsale is doing well now that tourism is back. International tourism is back and we're getting a nice blend of home tourism and international tourism."
