Temple Bar has begun to clean up its image as a focus for stag and hen parties 10 months after they were banned in the area, a locally commissioned survey has found.
But one third of visitors, when asked about rowdiness, still said drunks and rowdy people were a problem in the area. One third disagreed and another third said they had no opinion.
The survey of about 400 people was commissioned by Temple Bar Properties and carried out by the Behaviour and Attitudes marketing and research company between May and July.
It follows a ban on stag and hen parties in the area after a report last November showed they accounted for just one per cent of tourism, but discouraged 13 per cent of tourists, with an annual loss in revenue of £57 million.
That survey, by Indecon Economic Consultants, found that 93 per cent of stag and hen tourists were from the UK, 91 per cent did not visit any other part of Ireland and they spent a high percentage of their money on drink and comparatively less on accommodation and other items.
About half of those in the Behaviour and Attitudes survey were from the Republic, while the other half were tourists from Britain, continental Europe, North America and other countries.
When asked generally what they disliked about the area, almost one in 10 people said restaurants and pubs were expensive, eight per cent mentioned rowdiness in the evening and one per cent said there were too many pubs.
Some 58 per cent of people said Temple Bar was safe to visit regardless of the time of day, while 16 per cent felt it was not.
Almost one in 10 people agreed that Temple Bar was an exciting area with lots to do.
The survey findings were welcomed by Traders in the Area Supporting the Cultural Quarter - an organisation of 34 publicans and hoteliers set up following the ban.
The group has provided £200,000 to fund daily summer street cleaning, free street events and marketing of the area. Donations per trader are between £100 to £300 a week, depending on the size of the business.
Ms Eve-Anne Cullinan, from Temple Bar Productions, said the clean-up of the area was a long-term project, but the initiatives seemed to be working. "Last year it was really obvious that on a Friday or Saturday afternoon there were people strapped to lamp-posts and wrapped in clingfilm. Now there's a very high awareness that people don't welcome stags and hens in the area."