Ship has sailed on tourism season in East Clare

TOURISM providers in East Clare have expressed concern about the reduction in boaters and visitors to the area during the summer months. Cliona Coyne, who runs the Berrytree Café in Mountshannon estimates a drop of between 20% and 30% if not more on certain days last month compared to July 2023.
In fact, some days she has been forced to send staff home early due to a lack of trade, which is something she doesn’t like or wants to do but hasn’t an option if she is not even earning money to pay them. While Ms Coyne was expecting a strong trade in June, this didn’t happen. She has noticed a lot less boaters and foreign and Irish tourists in East Clare this summer.
She told The Clare Champion that Irish tourists have gone abroad because they didn’t want to a repeat of last year’s wet summer, while foreign tourists believe Ireland has got too expensive and they are finding it difficult to find reasonable accommodation.
“Boating people who have come to the café said they had no trouble getting a mooring this year compared to last summer they would be afraid when they arrived, there would be no space for them. They have been totally alone at times in places along the lake,” she said.
She pointed out it would be a massive boost to small and medium tourism related businesses if the vat rate was reduced from 13.5% back down to the previous rate of 9%.
Acknowledging government support through the Cost of Living Grant for commercial rates, she pointed out the increase in the hourly rate of the minimum wage is crippling in a summer with low tourist numbers notwithstanding the fact she isn’t opposed to employees being paid a proper rate and wants to pay them as much as she can afford.
“I would be worried about my survival, which will become clearer when I do my accounts later in the year,” she said.
Teresa Browne of Clareville Bed and Breakfast, Tuamgraney, who is operating for 24 years, believes her business is on a par with last year, noting B and B operators haven’t applied huge increases to their rates.
“The big problem in East Clare is that the Holy Island project is not up and running. It would do a power of good for all East Clare businesses. There is a serious lack of footfall because of the lack of a hotel or more accommodation in the area. Holy Island will have to be up and running next year. East Clare doesn’t have a major tourist attraction to bring in visitors. Mountshannon and the Clare side of Lough Derg is suffering as a result.
“The Tipperary side of the lake are doing extremely well because there was a huge push to promote tourism in North Tipperary by Tipperary County Council,” she said.
“We have more to offer because we are more inland but we are not promoting East Clare as we should be.”
Acknowledging Holy Island was purchased by Clare County Council in 2015, she expressed frustration with the delay in completing this vital tourism project, which still seemed to be a “work in progress” almost ten years later.
Welcoming the decision by Pat McDonagh to open Supermacs in the local filling station, she said this will provide a major economic boost for the locality.
Clare County Council are planning to open the new interpretative centre for Holy Island in Mountshannon in the first quarter of 2025.
The local authority is working closely with utility providers to put in place the necessary infrastructure to support the refurbishment of the old rectory building .
Theresa Lannon Hughes of Clare Tourism outlined at a recent Killaloe Municipal District meeting the refurbishment of the old rectory is continuing with the objective of opening it as a visitor centre in the first quarter of next year.
It is expected plans for a Part Ten planning application will be completed for An Bord Pleanála in September , while a tender will be sought for the fit out of the interpretative centre in the coming weeks.
Ms Hughes stressed a lot of work is being done with underwater surveys to examine the best route out to Holy Island from Mountshannon Harbour and the key infrastructure that is needed to support this, taking into account a lot of areas of archaeological significance.
Councillor Pat Burke who farms close to Lough Derg said he has never seen so little boats enjoying leisure activities on the lake.
He told The Clare Champion boat hire people in Carrick on Shannon and Athlone have slashed their hire prices trying to get people on to boats.