Letterkenny will know tomorrow if it has been named Ireland’s Top Tourism Town by Fáilte Ireland.
The Cathedral Town has been named on a shortlist of the ten top contenders from across the country selected for its inaugural Tourism Towns Award.
The Awards will take place tomorrow at a lunchtime ceremony in the Gibson Hotel, Dublin.
The shortlist was announced earlier this year at the National Tidy Towns Awards.
As well as Letterkeny, the other finalists include Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, Clonakilty, Co Cork, Dundalk, Co Louth, Ennis, Co Clare, Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny, Killarney, Co Kerry, Portmagee, Co Kerry, Trim, Co Meath and Westport, Co Mayo.
The Tourism Towns Award was designed by Fáilte Ireland to promote those Irish towns and villages which are working hard to enhance their appeal to tourists visiting their local area. The overall winner announced will receive a €10,000 grant towards developing itself as a tourism destination.
Anticipating tomorrow’s announcement, Fáilte Ireland CEO Shaun Quinn emphasised “This new award is an important step towards recognising those Irish towns and villages which are working hard to make Ireland even more attractive for tourists. This invaluable work also benefits their communities and the local economy”.
This new award is being piloted as part of the National Tidy Towns Competition. All the towns which finished among the top 100 Tidy Towns in last year’s competition were deemed to have met the basic criteria for eligibility and were invited to take part in this new tourism award scheme.
A subsequent long-list of 46 was drawn up. Following scrutiny from a panel of independent assessors, the shortlist of ten was selected.
Mr Quinn added “A good tourism town is not only a ‘Tidy Town’ – although first impressions are very important and a good clean environment is crucial to visitor appeal. What elevates a ‘Tidy Town’ to a ‘Tourism Town’ is the role that whole communities play in welcoming visitors and telling the story of their local area and add significantly to the enjoyment that visitors have.”