Shannon area wants a bigger flow of tourists

Bord Failte is considering a proposal to reclassify tourism facilities along the Shannon to allow them to claim matching funding in grants from a £134 million fund.

The proposal is one of a number being put forward to combat rising regional imbalance in tourism receipts.

While tourism in Dublin is expanding rapidly, particularly in the short breaks area, many continentals who traditionally spend time in rural regions are now heading for Canada which is financially as accessible as Ireland and also enjoys a "green" reputation.

According to the new chairman of Bord Failte, Mr Redmond O'Donoghue, tackling the regional imbalance is "the single most difficult task facing the organisation".

The proposal, which comes from the Irish Boat Rental Association (IBRA), is aimed at establishing clusters of attractions along the Shannon. The association says this is one of the aims of the National Development Plan and claims that Ireland is losing out because there are not enough leisure parks, fun fairs, restaurants and other attractions along the river.

Bord Failte is drawing up plans to administer grant aid for the seven years of the National Development Plan, 2000 to 2006. The Government has committed £350 million to be spent on marketing (£150 million), training (£66 million) and product development (£134 million).

The Government has also stressed in the plan that the most desirable developments should be in clusters or groups of attractions.

According to the IBRA, the Shannon is a natural magnet for tourism, having lakes, rivers and canals for cruising. It is also the only completely leisure waterway in Europe.

However, according to Mr Tim James, a director of the British firm Porter Haylett which operates cruiser fleets in England, Britain and France under the Connoisseur brand, as well as the Emerald Star fleet in Ireland, turnover for the industry is between a quarter and a third of what it could be.

The IBRA and its sister body, the Erne Charter Boat Association (ECBA), recently submitted a report to Bord Failte on the need to encourage the development of facilities to attract foreign tourists who are used to such attractions in other countries.

Mr James said Emerald Star, with its 240 cruisers, was Europe's largest fleet in one country. Yet it had a turnover of only £13 million last year, which showed an average occupancy well below that of their European competitors.

"Average occupancy in the UK was 20 weeks per boat and with 1,500 boats that delivered 30,000 holiday weeks sold. With most boats averaging six berths the potential income for facilities along the shore, such as pubs and restaurants, was very good indeed."

However, when the picture was translated to the Shannon region the average occupancy was down to 16 weeks per boat. This resulted in just 8,000 boat weeks per season. In addition, the Irish fleet contains some smaller boats which further constrict the potential number of holiday weeks.

He said the Shannon offered a variety of cruising styles from canal and river to lake cruising. In England, the major cruising area of the Norfolk Broads offered canals while in France there was mainly rivers and canals. These did not offer the variety and choice of the Shannon.

"The cruiser companies need to know that there are restaurants to facilitate their clients and obviously the restaurants welcome the boats bringing these people to them."

He said there were many instances of informal co-operation where restaurants would send cars to collect people from boats and deliver groceries but a recent study had found that this could be greatly expanded.