BOOKED OUT AGAIN FOR NEW YEAR
DINGLE is heading for another very busy New Year period with most of the town’s accommodation and restaurants already booked out.
The festive period, which peaks with Dingle’s ebullient New Year’s Eve celebrations is reckoned to be worth in the region of €2 million to local businesses. That revenue is spread across B&Bs, hotels, pubs, restaurants and shops in Dingle and in the surrounding areas that accommodate the overflow when the town reaches capacity.
Dingle Peninsula Tourism Alliance’s Marketing and Tourism Development Consultant, Caroline Boland, said this week that most of the accommodation providers who advertise online are booked out for the new year weekend. However, she said some beds may still be available in B&Bs that don’t use online reservation sites such as booking.com and trivago, because they are ‘invisible’ to the majority of visitors who now book their accommodation over the internet. Caroline said many of these ‘invisible’ B&Bs are listed on the dingle-peninsula.ie website and she advises people still looking for new year accommodation to look up the site and then phone the individual B&Bs to find out if they have vacancies.
On pre- Christmas shopping in Dingle, Caroline said the feedback she has received from local retailers is that business has been “extremely quiet” so far because many people are being attracted to sales and promotions in megastores in Tralee and further afield. However, she added that, “local shops have a lot to offer and they can do very well closer to Christmas from both local shoppers and people coming to stay for the festive season”.
The Tourism Alliance launched a ‘ Thanksgiving Weekend’ shopping promotion in November in an effort to encourage more people to shop locally and, while it wasn’t hugely successful, Caroline said the results were encouraging and the Alliance will continue the promotion over a three-year period.
“Tralee was mobbed with people over the Thanksgiving weekend and there’s no reason why they couldn’t shop at home. Still, the feedback we got on our Thanksgiving promotion was encouraging and we plan to work on it and make it grow,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dingle Business Chamber is busy raising funds for the fireworks display that helps attract thousands of people to Dingle’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. The fireworks cost almost €8,000 and the town’s Christmas lights cost a similar amount, all of which is paid for by local businesses and an annual ‘race night’ held in Danno’s bar.
“We appreciate that support and without it we’d have to cut back on our presentation of the town over Christmas and the New Year,” said Chamber PRO Risteard Mac Liam.
This year’s race night will be held in Danno’s on December 30; Risteard promises a mighty night and he is appealing to locals to go along and support the effort. Horses and race card advertisements can be bought in advance of the race night from John Sheehy, Gary Curran, Jim Garvey, Patrick Sheehy, Risteard Mac Liam or other committee members.