Tourism boom bypassing rural areas
Rural areas are the biggest losers when it comes to attracting tourism, new figures revealed today.
Visitor numbers to Ireland grew to an all-time high of 6.7 million during 2005 - with the number of tourists travelling to urban areas such as Limerick, Kilkenny, Waterford and Galway increasing.
But Shaun Quinn, chief executive of Fáilte Ireland, said: “We have a growing gap, not so much between east and west in the country, but certainly between the urban and the rural areas.”
He added: “We are finding the larger towns and cities around the country seem to be doing well and it is rural Ireland which is hurting a little bit more, and that is where the challenge is going forward.”
