Renewed efforts
underway to promote local caravan sites
by Simon McGeady, Inishowen
Independent
INISHOWEN Tourism’s new marketing manager insists
that the peninsula’s caravan parks need increased
exposure to help attract the increasing number of
cash conscious tourists swapping foreign trips for a
summer holiday at home.
Kathleen Gill is planning to meet the owners of
Inishowen’s various caravan parks in the coming
weeks to discuss how to transform the peninsula into
one of the Ireland’s premier caravan and camping
destinations.
“Inishowen’s potential as a camping and caravan
destination is completely untapped. We have the
scenery, now we need to work together to attract the
visitors. Experienced campers and caravan owners
want to be able to pull up to a site and start their
holiday. That means providing all the ancillary
services such as showers.”
Kathleen said that because a significant proportion
of the holiday accommodation in Inishowen was not
Failte Ireland approved, these sites are not as
visible to the key British and Northern Irish
markets as they might otherwise be.
Her comments come as Inishowen’s holiday
accommodation providers prepare for the high late
July/early August holiday season.
Billy McVeigh, who runs a campsite near Tullagh Bay,
Clonmany insists he’s facing his least profitable
summer in a decade.
Mr McVeigh says that, although his site is not
Failte Ireland approved, it is 100% legal and has
capacity for 12 motor homes.
“I’m not asking for free advertising from anyone,
but tourists shouldn’t be told not to come here just
because we are not signed up with Bord Failte,”
complained Mr McVeigh, whose facility is featured in
a booklet along with some 40 other independent Irish
sites.
It’s a different picture on the other side of the
peninsula where a spokesperson for the Cove holiday
site near Greencastle said 2009 was already shaping
up to be the best year yet for visitor numbers in
the four year history of the facility.
“We have noted a marked improvement in bookings on
last summer, although people are more than ever
looking for value for money and we have reduced our
prices by 25% in some cases.”
The Sweet Nellies facility has seen lot of last
minute bookings for their chalets, caravan and RV
berths.
“The majority of visitors to The Cove are from
Northern Ireland, but several come from the Dublin
area,” said the spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Kathleen Gill said that Inishowen Tourism
would work with all local site owners although she
did encourage more of them become Failte Ireland
approved.
“There is good quality non-approved accommodation
out there, but the challenge now is to make that
accommodation more visible to both locals and other
tourists.”
Kathleen appreciated that there was a lot of cost
involved in getting sites ‘up to a good
international standard’ but that the investment
would be worth it in the long run. |
