Tourism towns highlighted in Ireland

Failte Ireland - the official tourism marketing body for the country - has announced its shortlist for the inaugural Tourism Towns Award.

It is hoped that this move will highlight some of the areas of the nation that are best-suited to tourists.

The winning town will be announced in November - but it could be a good idea to book ferries to Ireland and take in some of the other selections of the shortlist.

Indeed, there is likely to be high demand for holidays to this particular destination, as figures recently published by the Central Statistics Office indicated that 6.6 million people travelled to Ireland in 2011.

This is a significant increase of 7.9 per cent in terms of visitor numbers compared with the previous year - and it was also revealed that these holidaymakers are spending more.

Expenditure from foreign visitor arrivals was boosted by 0.7 per cent in the same one-year time frame.

A total of ten towns are featured in the Failte Ireland shortlist - with County Clare and County Kerry particularly well represented, as there are two towns from each of the districts.

These are Ballyvaughan and Ennis for Clare, with Kerry represented by Killarney and Portmagee.

Clonakilty, Dundalk, Kilkenny, Letterkenny, Trim and Westport comprise the rest of the shortlist - and the minister for transport, tourism and sport Leo Varadkar Teachta Dala welcomed the initiative.

"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," he commented, adding: "This invaluable work also benefits their communities and the local economy."

"I hope that the towns and villages selected today will inspire other communities across Ireland to take similar steps," Mr Varadkar continued, adding that he looks forward to the announcement of the winner later on in the year.

Posted by Mark Robinson

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