Potential of tourism ‘must be tapped’

CORK is a poor second to Kerry when it comes to tapping the revenue-generating potential of the tourist industry, the chief executive of Cork Kerry Tourism told the city’s business leaders yesterday.

And Maura Moynihan said Cork city was worse than Cork county when it came to tourism.

Speaking at the Cork Chamber of Commerce monthly business breakfast, organised in association with the Irish Examiner, she threw down a challenge to the chamber to set up a committee to develop the city’s tourism.

A challenge chamber president Robin O’Sullivan said the organisation would be happy to take up. He said tourism was the country’s leading indigenous industry and admitted there was a sense of complacency in Cork towards the sector.

In Kerry, Ms Moynihan said a wide variety of businesses, including car dealerships and hairdressing salons, were members of Cork Kerry Tourism. They understood the benefit of tourism to every sector, she added.

In Cork, membership consisted mostly of accommodation providers, even though they only receive 20% of total tourism revenue generated in the city. Tourism in the city, she said has huge potential and must be developed. But to do this the whole attitude towards the industry must change. Cork needs, she said, to follow Kerry’s example and see the potential in every aspect of tourism.

“Kerry is already planning how it can benefit from Cork’s 2005 Capital of Culture status,” she said.

Cork should be planning how it can benefit in the years ahead from the event. It must also tap the potential of the 2005 National Ploughing Championships, which will be held in Cork, and the 2006 Ryder Cup in Kildare.

More people and firms must become members of Cork Kerry Tourism; the city must develop a name as a weekend and short-break destination, and it must develop more festivals and activity based attractions, said Ms Moynihan.

Cork people have a negative view of the city and the development work taking place, she said. While in sharp contrast, visiting journalists see the t development as progress.

“What we need in Cork is confidence in the product. People from outside Cork have this but Cork people are lacking it. This must change.”