Attendance at the Visit Wexford information evening in the Riverside Park Hotel. Pic: Christy Farrell
THE CROWD at the recent Visit Wexford Showcase may not have been as large as expected, but those in attendance were full of new ideas on how to bring tourists to the county.
The free tourism information evening, which took place in the Riverside Park Hotel, attracted few and far between, but the small crowd were passionately engaged in discussions on how to draw in new visitors.
On the night, former Chairperson of Visit Wexford, Michael Griffin, urged everyone to become more involved in doing their bit for County Wexford.
“We all have to ‘up’ our participation,” he said. “If an event is on, or you want to highlight a product/service/business, e-mail us at [email protected]. Get social – share our Facebook posts, retweet us on Twitter, it wouldn’t hurt to give us a ‘like’ and get the word out there.”
He also highlighted the different representatives throughout Wexford, saying that not many people may be aware of them. In Wexford, they are Damien Lynch and Peter Wilson, in North Wexford they are Niamh D’Arcy and Dick White, in New Ross they are Bettie Marie Burger Smit and Teresa Delaney and in Enniscorthy they are Colm Neville and Jacqui Hynes.
Mr. Griffin told the room that these regional representatives were available for anyone to share their views with and who are fully behind their local area.
He added that the 2013 mission is to increase public awareness to Visit Wexford as well as regional participation.
Shop-owner John Rath also took the stand to speak of the importance tourism in the hotel industry is to the retail industry in Wexford.
“We all benefit,” he said, “and we should work more closely with hotels. If there is a business conference or anything on we should all come together to offer something to the people coming.”
He added: “My three last customers today had come from hotels in Wexford and on a quiet and cold day I was glad the hotels gave me that bit of business.”
The floor was then opened to any questions, with Martin Colfer kicking things off. He suggested that the influx of hunchback whales in the Duncannon area should be taken advantage of, and that package deals with hotels for potential whale watchers should be worked on. Mr. Griffin said he thought this was an ‘excellent’ idea and something he was interested in going forward with.
Madeline Quirk, C.E.O of Wexford Chamber, asked for plans of festivals and events to be shared with the room. Colm Neville, President of Enniscorthy Chamber of Commerce, responded: “It’s well known that we have a lot of festivals planned; we have provided a festival guide tonight which is a real eye-opener of what we have to offer from month to month.”
He added that he is confident Wexford will catch up with tourist favourites such as Kerry and Westport.
Maria Nolan asked the panel what their opinion was on establishing a literary centre in Enniscorthy to highlight the work of local writers and poets
“I was in Listowel recently and visited their literary centre, which attracted 25,000 visitors last year, and thought Wexford would have a greater advantage running something like it as our writers are living. Of course it’d be in Enniscorthy, the centre of the County,” she laughed.
Enniscorthy Town Manager responded: “It’s an interesting idea but it is how you manage it and keep it open that is the problem.” He added that he would ‘tease’ the idea with the Town Clerk and see where it went from there. “Acorns and Oak trees and all that,” he said.
