Cliffs of Moher redevelopment plan to deliver €36m in annual revenue

A redevelopment plan for the Cliffs of Moher visitor attraction will deliver a projected €36 million in annual revenue for the tourist operation.

The Cliffs of Moher is the country’s most popular natural tourist attraction with 1.1 million visitors last year.

The redevelopment is to deliver a “world-class” visitor attraction and the implementation of the 2040 strategy will deliver a more profitable and more robust operation for the future, according to the 2040 Cliffs of Moher strategy document.

The preliminary draft of the plan lists shortcomings of current tourist facilities and the risky behaviour of those seeking “Instagram-worthy” photo opportunities along the unstable cliff edge.

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According to the 139-page document, the implementation of the strategy “is projected to generate an overall income of €36 million from visitor spend and employ more than 300 people”.

The master plan includes the development of a new gateway building, the conversion of the existing visitor centre into an interpretative hub and a new cliff-edge walk that would include a variety of viewing platforms, some of which will jut out over the cliff edge.

The report said that the total expenditure of visitors to the Cliffs of Moher was projected to be more than €300 million a year in the wider economy and would support over 8,000 tourism jobs.

The authors said that the implementation of the strategy would “result in significantly increased economic benefits at the site, and at local, regional and national level”.

The report noted that in 2019, the visitor attraction, owned by Clare County Council, generated €18 million in estimated revenue and had estimated operating profits of €9.7 million.

Admission income makes up 90 per cent of the Cliffs of Moher income.

The preliminary draft said that “overall, the operational surplus from the Cliffs of Moher site was projected to double”.

The strategy document did not mention the scale of admission price income required to part fund the capital cost of the strategy, stating only that “admission charges for the Cliffs of Moher will change in line with the development of the new facilities and to reflect the ‘world-class’ status of the new and expanded visitor offer”.

The plan seeks to sharply increase revenue and profits while at the same time capping visitor numbers at 2019 levels during peak periods.

Director of the Cliffs of Moher Experience, Geraldine Enright, said the strategy was driven by the need to protect the environment, cap the visitor numbers and strike a balance between tourism and the local community.