Every county in Ireland will be allocated significant funding by Fáilte Ireland to develop the tourism potential of their destination towns. The funding has been allocated through the Local Authorities as part of the €15.5million ‘Destination Towns’ initiative launched earlier this year by the National Tourism Development Authority. Up to €500,000 per local authority will be allocated in two rounds by Fáilte Ireland to boost the attractiveness and tourism appeal of towns nationwide. The process of identifying the towns that receive funding commenced in mid-2019 and was led by the Local Authorities in consultation with Fáilte Ireland.
One of which will be Lucan. The majority of the funding is being awarded now as part of the first round of allocations. The second round of allocations will take place early in Spring 2020 when further developmental work has concluded with the relevant Local Authorities. The counties that fall under this second funding allocation are: Wicklow, Clare, Laois and South Dublin County Council. The Fáilte Ireland scheme is part of the National Tourism Development Authority’s work to drive a better regional spread of overseas and domestic visitors and spend. Through the scheme, which was launched earlier this year, every Local Authority in the country had the opportunity to bid for funding of up to €500,000 to develop a town in the county to enable it to improve its tourism offering and make itself more attractive to visitors. The Local Authorities will also provide funding for their projects.
Fáilte Ireland’s CEO Paul Kelly said:
“The towns which reap the greatest benefits from tourism and schemes like Destination Towns are those where all local tourism players work together – from Local Authorities and businesses to the communities themselves, each complementing another’s efforts to create a full and appealing offering for their area. A core focus of Fáilte Ireland’s work is to drive a greater regional spread of visitors and revenue across the country. Initiatives like our Destination Towns scheme are critical in doing this by boosting the tourism appeal of destinations across Ireland. We’re delighted with the support from the Local Authorities and we would like to thank them for their work in putting forward such compelling cases for investment.”
