‘Sleeping giant’ in tourism

‘Strength in numbers’ - says Cathaoirleach

The new five-year sustainable tourism development plan, launched last week by Fáilte Ireland, aims to drive tourism to the Upper Shannon, Shannon-Erne, and Border area by emphasising the tourism potential of the Beara Breifne Way and Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Geopark among others.

It also intends to make significant use of local landmark attractions such as the €10m Shannon Pot Discovery Centre and Burren Park, Cavan County Museum and the Cavan Adventure Centre to name but a few.

The Shannon Pot project alone, due to open in early 2026, could attract over €30 million in visitor spend and welcome in excess of 600,000 visitors to the area over a 10-year period.

Forest parks, lakelands and “heritage and cultural gems” will also be explored for “new investment opportunities”; as well as potentials already identified in the Shannon Tourism Masterplan. That encompasses a range of recommendations detailed in a recently published Feasibility Study for the Sustainable Development and Greening of the Cruise Hire Sector.

That specific roadmap, up to 2033, was completed by KPMG in collaboration with Waterways Ireland, the Irish Boat Rental Association and local authorities. It identifies Cavan/ Belturbet and their existing public marinas as key visitor areas, and the possibility of extending the Shannon navigation to Dowra.

The launch of the new Upper Shannon, Shannon-Erne, and Border Destination and Experience Development Plan (DEDP) took place at the Arigna Mining Experience in Roscommon on Tuesday, January 21.

Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council, T.P. O’Reilly, Chief Executive Eoin Doyle, Cavan County Tourism Officer Joanne Hayes, and John Donohoe, SEO, Community, Enterprise, and Tourism; Head of Enterprise Conor Craven, and CEO of Cavan County Local Development Terry Hyland, were among local representatives present.

The Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands Regional Tourism Development Strategy 2023-2027 and the Shannon Tourism Masterplan 2020-2030, together provide a strategic framework for the DEDP.

Tony Walker is one of the co chairs of the body, which helped bring the latest document to life. He considers Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands as a “sleeping giant” in terms of tourism potential.

The General Manager of the Slieve Russell Hotel is one of three heads, all with tourism backgrounds, including Eileen Gibbons (Electric Bike Trails, Co Leitrim) and Anne O’Donoghue, CEO, Irish Heritage Trust (National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park, Co Roscommon).

At the launch of the plan, each spoke to the value of “regenerative tourism”, one with community at the centre of the tourism model.

Mr Walker himself stated that with “joint collaboration” between all the State bodies and the many stakeholders “we can collectively awaken this region offering world-class regenerative tourism, which will become a much sought-after travel destination for many like-minded visitors to our shores.”

Tourism is widely acknowledged to be of critical importance to the national economy, as well as to regional development and employment.

Pre-Covid, the sector generated revenue of €7.5 billion annually and supported 260,000 jobs nationwide, while also contributing €1.7 billion to the exchequer.

Nationally, in 2019 Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, one year after its launch, had already managed to capture a 4.1% share of overseas visitors and a 6.7% share of domestic tourists. The figures refer to the original configuration of Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands which, until 2021, consisted of the three full counties of Leitrim, Longford and Roscommon, and parts of counties Cavan, Westmeath, Offaly, Galway, Clare and Tipperary.

The implementation of this new tourism plan has the potential, Fáilte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly believes, to “significantly increase” the domestic and international appeal of the region, and assist in growing the visitor economy with a net positive benefit for all stakeholders – visitor, industry, community and the environment – where possible.

Connecting visitor experiences, using greenways and blueways, is “central to the plan” the detailed 100-page DEDP states. “Growing connections and linkages with surrounding destinations on all sides, including cross-border collaboration, has been identified in the plan as one of the factors for success.”

The plan notes there are several “clusters of tourism” experiences and attractions, with a strong concentration around Carrick on Shannon, and “more dispersed” throughout Cavan, northwest Roscommon and north Leitrim.

Regarding the Beara Breifne Way, Ireland’s longest walking trail taking the route of the legendary O’Sullivan Beare march of 1603 from Cork to Cavan, the plan suggests it “has the potential to be transformative” for those communities through which it passes.

The region meanwhile boasts “some of the finest forest parks” in the country, the plan acknowledges. Dún an Rí and Killykeen in Cavan, Glenfarne Woods in Leitrim, and Lough Key Forest and Activity Park in Roscommon are all highlighted.

Other popular attractions include Acres Lake (and the ‘Snake on the Lake’ boardwalk) where a new €1.2m watersports facility is being developed, Glencar Waterfall and Castle Saunderson.

“There are scenic towns, villages, excellent restaurants and bars, and stunning outdoor activity options in the outlying parts of the region.”

It adds that accommodation provision is “strongest and most” widespread in Cavan compared to the other counties on which the plan focuses.

“What the plans does, and what it shows, is a bit of much-needed, joined-up thinking when comes to tourism for the region and in how we promote ourselves, not just as a county, but with our neighbours beside us,” says Cllr T. P. O’Reilly.

The idea of “strength in numbers”, he says, “makes sense”, and he considers it important that Cavan and neighbouring counties have a strategy to market them as tourism destinations after they appeared to fall between the cracks of the hugely successful Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East.

“Anything we can do, we need to do it to encourage and better promote tourism to his area. There is a niche there. Cavan and this whole region is unique. It’s all about promoting and marketing that now, and bringing benefit to our communities and businesses.”

Cavan’s First Citizen believes there are “opportunities at every turn”. He looks to the Arigna Mining Experience as a prime example of that, revitalising and “breathing new life” into a product, and using that as a “foundation from which something brilliant, something new can happen”.

Cavan Tourism Officer Joanne Hayes considers the newly launched DEDP to be a “very positive move” for the future of the tourism industry in the county.

“The new DEDP will provide a roadmap for the future development of tourism in this area, with a focus on sustainability,” she says, highlighting too how businesses and communities in Cavan had contributed to the development of the report over the last two years.

“So I’m looking forward to seeing the outputs and benefits to Cavan over the coming months and years.”