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VISITOR numbers at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Attraction increased by 8% during 2012, according to figures released on Wednesday.Visitor numbers hit 873,988 last year, representing an increase of almost 65,000 visitors on the overall figure for 2011. Most notably, there was a 17.7% increase in group visitors travelling to the site by coach.Overall, 52% of all visitors during 2012 were fully independent travellers (FITs), who travelled to the site by car, 44% arrived by coach, while the remainder (4%) were walkers or cyclists.North Clare hotelier and president of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, welcomed the increase in group visitors to the attraction but said that unfortunately this is not having a ripple effect for other tourism businesses in the area.“There is not enough spin-off custom for other business in Clare from the coach visitors to the Cliffs. We have not done enough to make people stay within the county,” he said.“Part of that increase at the Cliffs of …

VISITOR numbers at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Attraction increased by 8% during 2012, according to figures released on Wednesday.Visitor numbers hit 873,988 last year, representing an increase of almost 65,000 visitors on the overall figure for 2011. Most notably, there was a 17.7% increase in group visitors travelling to the site by coach.Overall, 52% of all visitors during 2012 were fully independent travellers (FITs), who travelled to the site by car, 44% arrived by coach, while the remainder (4%) were walkers or cyclists.North Clare hotelier and president of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, welcomed the increase in group visitors to the attraction but said that unfortunately this is not having a ripple effect for other tourism businesses in the area.“There is not enough spin-off custom for other business in Clare from the coach visitors to the Cliffs. We have not done enough to make people stay within the county,” he said.“Part of that increase at the Cliffs of …

CLARE nurses are being urged to participate in a national rally to oppose plans by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to introduce “cheap labour” under a “superficial guise of an educational graduate programme”.Two nursing unions are calling for a boycott of this “flawed initiative”, which plans to hire 1,000 graduate nurses at 80% of previous starting salaries.Under the initiative, the graduates would have two-year contracts, instead of being permanent, and would start on €22,000 a year, instead of the current €26,400.A national rally to galvanise opposition to the initiative takes place this Saturday in Croke Park at 11am.Speaking ahead of Saturday’s rally, Des Kavanagh, general secretary of the PNA, said, “The HSE are presenting this flawed initiative as some sort of opportunity for new graduates. All it is, in reality, is an overt attempt to recruit cheap labour in breach of agreed salaries.”Liam Doran, general secretary of the INMO, claimed there are no new jobs attached to this initiative and …

IRELAND’S first baby of 2013 is acclimatising to life in Kilmihil this week following his birth at 12.01am on New Year’s Day at the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital in Limerick. Leo Carl Maples wasn’t due until next Tuesday, January 8 but his parents, Carmel McNamara and Charlie Maples, realised on the afternoon of December 31 that their new baby was on his way. “I was at home and my waters just decided to break. I was about to get something to eat for myself. I was coming down the stairs and bang,” Carmel told The Clare Champion. “It happened at 2.45pm and I got to the hospital at about 4.15pm. I had no pain until 9.30pm on New Year’s Eve. I was only in labour for two and a half hours,” she added. Carmel hadn’t time to dwell on the fact that Leo was vying for the honour of being Ireland’s first baby of the new year. “I didn’t even …

CLARE will attract more American tourists in 2013 but will be lucky to hold 2012 numbers of British visitors, an industry expert here predicts.Figures published recently show the number of tourists visiting Ireland from the UK continued to fall last year.Britain is Ireland’s largest tourism market and in the past year nationally, there were 100,000 fewer arrivals from the UK than in 2011, a drop of 4%.The figures were contained in the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) End of Year Review 2012 published recently. It showed that while there were 6.5 million overseas arrivals in 2012, this showed little or no growth on 2011. Nationally there was a 2% increase in arrivals from mainland Europe and a similar level of increase from North America. This, however, did not make up for the drop in UK visitors, which remains a worry for tourism interests here with 2.8 million arrivals last year, way down on the 2007 high of more than four …

TURF cutters in West Clare have received payments of €220,500 not to cut turf in a protected bog, despite claims from the Turf Cutters and Contractors’ Association (TCCA) that a ban should never have been imposed on the habitat.The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has confirmed that 147 Clare turf cutters, who were previously operating on Tullaher Bog near Moyasta, received a €1,500 payment or a delivery of 15 tonnes of turf to their homes under the Turf Cutting Compensation Scheme (TCCS) this year.Tullaher Bog is one of the 53 Special Areas of Conservation in the country where all turf cutting is banned – a restriction that was observed by local turf cutters this year.TCCA chairman, Deputy Luke Ming Flanagan, has claimed that Tullaher Bog was wrongly classified as a raised bog and described it as “transition mire”, which had more similar characteristics to a blanket bog.In fact, Deputy Flanagan hopes local turf cutters can resume their turbary …

AFTER being tied to the Dublin Airport Authority, Shannon formally separated from it on New Year’s Day.A statement on the airport’s website on Tuesday welcomed the split. “Separation officially took place at 11.59pm last night, with the first passengers to transit through the newly autonomous airport arriving on board the Aer Lingus EI-110 flight from JFK at 5.08am this morning. The airport will commence operations on a solid footing by way of a debt-free balance sheet and a business plan with an immediate focus on growing passenger numbers and route development.“The airport will also work towards the development of the International Aviation Services Centre at Shannon, which is targeting the creation of a significant number of primarily aviation-related jobs within a three to five-year period, building on the existing cluster of 40 aviation-related companies in Shannon currently.”Shannon Airport Authority chairman Rose Hynes said it was a ‘huge moment’ for the airport, “Today is ‘Independence Day’ for Shannon – this is …

GETTING more inbound traffic into Shannon is probably the best thing that could happen to this region’s tourist industry and this week Lahinch hotelier Michael Vaughan, who is president of the Irish Hotels’ Federation, welcomed the separation from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).“From a business point of view, the positives are that it has a balance sheet free of all debt. It has what I believe is a very dynamic chairperson in Rose Hynes and I think there is a clear focus on where Shannon needs to go. I think there’s a huge amount of work to be done yet but the airport has the ability now to chart its own path for the future,” he said.Mr Vaughan also called for the region to get behind the airport. “It beholds all of us in business to support the airport as much as we can. I know Rose Hynes has already had discussions with Chambers of commerce and other business interests …