THY KINGDOM COMEBACK
Kerry is having a tourism boom thanks to domestic visitors
IRELAND’S tourism mecca is enjoying a boom not seen since the 1970s as it prepares for the full reopening of the hospitality sector from tomorrow, according to local business leaders and industry sources.
Kerry is hugely reliant on tourism, attracting 1.5 million visitors pre-pandemic, with one-in-five jobs locally in the hospitality sector providing a vital economic lifeline for the county.
But even before tomorrow’s indoor reopening, the Kingdom has been enjoying a spectacular comeback, with huge numbers of domestic visitors giving a very welcome boom for local businesses.
Grim predictions earlier this summer of a drop compared to last year have melted away with a surge in bookings from staycationers from every corner of the country.
Hotels in Killarney are now almost at full capacity, far surpassing the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) June survey which indicated they may be running at just half occupancy. Some local hotels are so busy they have had to close their doors to nonresidents looking for dining spaces in their outdoor terraces.
Even before the arrival of last week’s Mediterranean conditions, domestic tourists were arriving in Dingle and Killarney in
‘These six weeks have lifted everyone’s spirits’
their droves. This weekend extra portaloos are being hauled onto Rossbeigh Beach where, in the words of one local resident and councillor, the capacity of the public toilets was ‘severely tested’ in recent days.
Councillor Michael Cahill, chairman of Kenmare Municipal District who runs the Rossbeigh Beach House guesthouse with his wife Brenda, said he has never seen anything like the volume of people descending on one of Kerry’s largest and most famed beaches over the past week.
Cllr Cahill told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘It is busy from early morning, right up until 10pm. I can’t ever recall the crowds being there so late. You would still find it hard to get a parking space at 9pm. I have never seen this before.
‘Thousands are flocking to the beach where Oisín left for Tír na nÓg. It is unbelievable. I am so glad for the businesses around here. The past six weeks have lifted everyone’s spirits. It’s so good for the mental health of people to be out and about. I am so happy to see places that were in the position to open to have done so. I think we have a new appreciation of the home holiday too. There will be more and more staycationing. People are so happy. I met people in Glenbeigh who had not holidayed at home in 30 years and were sorry they ever went away.’
However, Kerry’s infrastructure is coming under pressure from the huge number of visitors. Enforcement officers have been drafted in to patrol the nearby Kells Beach off the Ring of Kerry, where cars were parked so deeply this week that an ambulance was unable to pass.
Killarney, where tourism is traditionally worth more than €410million to the town’s economy, driven by 1.1 million visitors, including 600,000 from overseas, is enjoying a significant surge in staycation bookings.
But even the Kingdom’s tourism capital is struggling to cater for the huge crowds. This week a local pharmacist, William Sheehan of Main Street, supplied pictures to local media showing ‘mounds’ of litter and glass bottles council workers have to clear away every morning.
Council meetings have heard widespread complaints from residents who are unable to sleep at night due to the noise levels.
Illustrating the difference from pre-pandemic years, some local operators have noted a lot of domestic visitors tend to socialise later than foreign tourists, who are usually out sightseeing from early morning.
Hotelier Tom Randles of Randles Hotel on the Muckross Road told the MoS: ‘It [visitors] is 100% domestic. Time cycles are not the same as the foreign visitor. There is late breakfast and late checking out, and the domestic tourist spends more time around the town during the day. Killarney is very busy right now. We would look forward to bars and restaurants opening.’
Some locals have drily dubbed Killarney as ‘Kerry’s Fuengirola’, after the popular Spanish party resort. Three weeks ago the local Chamber of Commerce and gardaí issued a joint warning about late night crowds in non-designated spots and under-age drinking.
They urged parents to keep an eye on their youngsters after several had to be called to Killarney Garda station to pick up drunken teenagers.
On Friday morning, council staff were also busy picking up overturned flower boxes along with the litter. Local golf courses are also reporting a significant increase in bookings from visitors, many of whom would traditionally travel to Spain during the summer months.
Killarney Golf Course head of marketing Meg Dalton told the MoS: ‘We have a lot of Irish and a lot of Golf Ireland members. We work very closely with the hotels.’
Ms Dalton also confirmed a party of Scottish golfers teed off on Friday morning, and that the course recently hosted its first American golf party for over a year.
In Dingle, the absence of the legendary harbour dolphin Fungie for the first time in 37 years has not dented local business.
Large crowds of well-heeled 30and 40-somethings have descended on the picture-postcard town in recent weeks, speciality coffees in hand with smart strollers for the children. Older second home owners have also returned.
Day-trippers are out in force too, with former Fungie boat operators saying the numbers have been way beyond their expectations.
Hourly cruises on the harbour, eco-tours, visits to the Blasket Islands, dolphin spotting and cliff trips are all enjoying a boom.
‘We are flat out,’ Gill May of Dingle Dolphin told the MoS.
Bridget Flannery of Dingle Sea Safari said they still miss Fungie, who drew people to the water and heightened their interest in the sea. ‘Without Fungie being here, a lot of families would never have come and then they see there is so much more to the Dingle coastline than they realised,’ said Bridget.
‘Domestic tourists spend more time in the town’