Tag Archives: Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience

AN ambitious roadmap for tourism development which aims to make Clare a “globally-renowned sustainable and vibrant destination”, is being unveiled this Thursday. Clare County Council, supported by Fáilte Ireland, is launching the ‘County Clare Tourism Strategy 2030’, setting out the development of tourism in County Clare post-Covid and over the next decade. The focus of the strategy is on strengthening leadership and collaboration, improving connectivity, building vibrant experiences, enhancing supporting infrastructure and knowledge, and creating awareness.  Strategic priorities set out in the plan include working to develop the profile, experiences and infrastructure of Ennis as a core hub attraction and gateway to the county, as well as working with community partners to strengthen the role of towns and villages as destination hubs. Others include working with Shannon Airport to secure and sustain new routes; prioritising the development of the West Clare Rail Greenway; promoting the Lower Lough Derg as a signature destination; establishing sustainable travel options designed to support tourism …

A 20-year strategy to guide future upgrades at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience is currently in development, with all works to be dependent on the availability of funding. Clare County Council, supported by Fáilte Ireland, is currently undertaking the Cliffs of Moher Strategy 2040 that will set out the future plans, including an architectural masterplan for the site and economic delivery plans for the wider hinterland of County Clare. UK-based tourism lead multi-disciplinary consultants Haley Sharpe Design are midway through the project schedule, which is due for completion in quarter one, 2021.  A separate contract running concurrently with the strategy has been signed with internationally renowned Dublin-based architects Henchion Reuter, with a value of €1.93m over a number of years, to design key infrastructural requirements. This contract will dovetail with the strategy to inform the wish list of developments that could be delivered over the long term.   The package of works for design include required upgrades to the waste water …

Clare County Council has closed a number of facilities including the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience due to severe weather conditions expected during Hurricane Ophelia. Limited essential services will be provided by the council during Monday. A number of local authority facilities will remain closed during the day. These include the Central Waste Management Facility, Ballyduffbeg, Ennis, Lisdeen, Scariff and Shannon Recycling Centres; Active Kilrush Amenity Park, Active Ennis Leisure Centre, Active Ennis John O’Sullivan Park, Lees Road, all Clare County Library branches, Clare Museum, Loop Head Lighthouse and the Clare Arts Office.

Visitor numbers to the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience were up 15.8% during 2015, it has been confirmed. 1,251,574 people visited the Clare County Council owned centre last year compared to 1,080,501 during 2014, meaning that the Cliffs of Moher broke the one million visitor figure for the just the second time ever last year. It is the fifth successive increase in visitor numbers to the Cliffs of Moher with year-on-year increases of 12.5%, 10%, 8%, 10% and 12.3% being achieved during 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. Fully Independent Travellers (FITs), mainly travelling by car, made up 49% of the total, representing a 14.6% increase compared to 2014   Groups travelling by coach made up 45.6% of the total and increased by 16.1% on the previous year.  Others including walkers, cyclists and those travelling by public transport made up 5.4% and increased by 16.5% compared to 2014. “This is the highest number of visitors since records were first kept exceeding the …

Six prominent Clare companies pitched their businesses to a group of 20 top Canadian travel agents who are in Ireland to attend the Fáilte Ireland’s autumn sales workshop. Representatives from the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience; Trump International Hotel & Golf Links, Doonbeg; Secret Ireland Escapes; Shannon Heritage; Dromoland Castle and Doolin Ferry Company attended the Canadian Destination Expo in Barbarstown Castle, Co Kildare. The workshop, which was organised by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, was the last in a series of six sales workshops which were organised to focus on attracting more overseas visitors from key markets including the North American market. Irish tourism businesses engaged in almost 8,500 one-to-one sales meetings with approximately 275 major travel agents and overseas buyers during the past weeks. Speaking at the workshop, Ciara Sugrue, Head of Publicity, Trade and Promotions, Fáilte Ireland said: “The North American market is an important market for Ireland and we are delighted to be welcoming …

ONE-third of all visitors to the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience in the past year stayed at least one night in the county, according to new figures. More than 1,660 people completed online surveys for the attraction in the 12 months from August 2014 to August 2015 and these figures show that 33.2% of visitors indicated they had spent either the night before their Cliffs visit, the night after or both nights, in County Clare. “This indicates a minimum of 536,174 overnights in the county, not taking into account those staying longer than two nights. In 2014, incentive pricing for group tours arriving before 11am or after 4pm was introduced, which further encourages an overnight stay locally,” Ger Dollard, director of services, Clare County Council, stated. The local authority, which owns the centre, reledased the new figures. Mr Dollard stated that while the average spend in the county per visitor to the Cliffs is not known, “by any measure the …

The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience has been awarded the first ever Heritage Gold award in the annual CIE Awards of Excellence. CIE Tours International staged their 25th annual Awards of Excellence at Dublin Castle, where Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring presented the award to the Clare County Council owned visitor attraction. The Heritage Gold award is presented to the single supplier in any category who has contributed most to the success of CIE Tours International last year. 24,334 surveys were completed by CIE customers who visited the Cliffs of Moher as part of a tour in 2014 and an overall satisfaction rating of 95.5% was achieved by the attraction, which last year saw overall visitor numbers break the one million mark for the first time.

Visitor numbers at the Clare County Council owned Cliffs of Moher visitor attraction have increased by 12.5% during 2014 breaking the one million mark for the first time. Figures released reveal that visitor numbers have hit 1,075,000 for this year, representing an increase of over 115,000 visitors on the overall figure for 2013. 2014 marks the fourth successive year of increased visitor numbers to the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience. The visitor centre has also seen substantial investment in product and facilities in 2014 with a spend of over €600,000 on additional coach parking facilities, new exhibition content, restoration works in O’Brien’s Tower and a redesign of the foyer at the visitor centre. “A number of positive factors combined during 2014 to drive visitor numbers over the one million mark,” Katherine Webster, Director of Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience. “New routes and increased access into Shannon Airport, the launch by Failte Ireland of the Wild Atlantic Way on which the …