Cork leads the way as 45 towns, villages vie for prestigious tourism award

Fáilte Ireland has confirmed the 45 locations around the country which are in the running for the 2013 Tourism Towns Award.

Cork, with nine towns and villages including Cobh, Kinsale, and Clonakilty, has the highest number of places hoping to secure the top prize in a competition which is in its second year.

According to Fáilte Ireland, the award is designed to recognise Irish towns and villages where the local community goes the extra mile to enhance their appeal to tourists.

The top 10 “highly comm-ended tourism towns” will be announced at the National Tidy Towns Awards with the overall winner to be announced by Fáilte Ireland in November.

Portmagee in Co Kerry was the winning town of the inaugural award in 2012.

After its win the fishing village formed a community-led working group and developed a three-year plan to improve the overall visitor experience.

Patricia Kennedy, of Portmagee’s tourism town committee, said: “The local community have been hugely positive since the win and were delighted, humbled and proud with achieving this recognition. Since then other groups have come on board in organising events to raise the profile of the area and putting Portmagee further on the map.”

The award focuses:

*Sense of place — how the town tells its unique story to visitors;

*Local involvement — how the community works together to provide an authentic visitor experience;

*Tourism products available — what the town has to offer visitors;

*Development and promotion of the town — how entrants take a unified approach to marketing and developing the town into a “tourism town”.

The top 10 towns will each receive €1,000 with the winner getting a further €10,000, along with marketing and development supports from Fáilte Ireland.

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