Visitors to the Hook have topped the 200,000 mark so far this year
HOOK LIGHTHOUSE attracted over 200,000 visitors for the first nine months of this year.
A spokesperson for the facility said everyone involved with the lighthouse is delighted with the news which was contained in an independent report from data compiled between January 1, to September 30, which highlighted that 210,000 people visited the facility during that time.
Commenting on the news Hook Lighthouse Manager, Ann Waters, said: “This is fantastic news both for Hook Lighthouse and for Wexford. All of the team here have been working very hard to develop our visitor experience and to grow our visitor numbers and we are delighted to see this hard work reap rewards.”
Ms. Waters said the launch of Ireland’s Ancient East trail boosted this year’s season: “That gave our early season a real boost and that has continued right throughout the summer and well into autumn with some visitors waiting long periods of time to enjoy a tour of the Lighthouse.”
Ms. Waters said there are plans in place to allow visitors to pre-book their own tour times on-line, in advance.
“This will help us to anticipate demand and will, we believe, ultimately grow visitor numbers even further in the future,” she said.
The Chairperson of Hook Heritage Ltd., Cllr. Larry O’Brien, also expressed delight in the visitor numbers.
“This is a truly commendable achievement by the team at Hook Lighthouse,” he said.
“I would like to thank Ann and all of the staff for their hard work and commitment to [it] the most popular tourism attraction in Wexford and now the third most popular in the Southeast after the Rock of Cashel and Kilkenny Castle,” he added.
“To put these figures in context, the visitor numbers at Hook Lighthouse are on par with the number of visitors to Dublin Castle annually.”
Failte Ireland has also revealed its latest tourism data statistics indicate that in 2015, 221,000 overseas tourists visited Wexford creating an economic impact of €65m for the county.
Last year also saw around 679,000 domestic tourists visit Wexford resulting in an economic impact of €140m.
The New Ross Municipal District Manager, Sinead Casey, who is also a board member of Hook Heritage Ltd. Congratulated everyone involved with the facility.
“The team at Hook Lighthouse work very hard on their tourism product and I wish to congratulate them on this,” she said.
Ms. Casey said the local authority is “very much aware” of the work being done by the management and staff at the Hook.
“An official method of capturing the number of visitors to the lighthouse was not in place so we took it onboard to install an automated counter backed up by monitoring services and reporting,” she said.
“The exercise has proved very fruitful and an appraisal of the economic impact of Hook Lighthouse as a tourism attraction for Wexford can now be estimated.”
