Killarney aims to be accessible for all
TOURISM PLANS AIMS TO MAKE KILLARNEY THE WORLDWIDE LEADER IN ACCESSIBLE TOURISM
A MAJOR works programme will have to be undertaken in Killarney to make it a leader in accessible tourism
Killarney businesses in conjunction with Kerry County Council will also have to play a major part in ensuring that this vision becomes a reality according to Killarney chamber president, Paul O’Neill.
The Killarney Chamber of Commerce and Tourism launched their vision for the town last Thursday night to become a leading accessible destination for tourism.
Minster Brendan Griffin was on hand to launch the plan, and he said that accessible tourism would contribute to the future of the country.
Killarney has been chosen by the organisation, Universal Access, which is led by a local man, Paudie Healy, to become a leading world destination for all under the World Tourism for All Program. This aims to make destinations across the world accessible to everyone. The European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) chose the Kerry organisation to manage the pilot, and this led to Killarney being chosen.
Mr O’Neill said that developing Killarney as such a destination will have huge benefits for the tourism industry.
“This is a huge opportunity for our businesses and the town. We can future-proof our assets, open up a whole new market, extend our shoulder season, retain and have a new avenue to staff talent, increase our bottom line and, the most important thing, be leaders as an inclusive industry,” he said.
He added that Kilarney tourism industry’s vision was to “give a world-class service to all people through the full human life cycle”.
“To do this we must make sure our facilities, products, services and IT are inclusive to all”
Mr O’Neill said that for the project to be a success there needs to be ‘collaboration’ between all different tourism service providers and Kerry County Council.
“We are by no means currently a leading accessible destination. ‘ Killarney – A destination for all’ is just what we want to do and who we are, so let’s go now and build a world-class, leading, accessible destination” he said at the launch in the Gleneagle last Thursday.
This was also attended by Kerry County Council CEO, Moira Murrell, who said the local authority “were committed” to the initiative and had included this as part of their tourism strategy for the county. The local authority will be carrying out works over the coming years to help Killarney lead the way.
CEO of Universal Access and Killarney chamber member Paudie Healy, who introduced the accessible tourism concept to Ireland, presented a very comprehensive business case of the changing tourism markets in Europe. He also outlined research undertaken by the European Commission which stated that 2million tourism service providers need to become accessible to meet the demand by 2020.
“Being able to show and prove inclusive tourism throughout the full business culture is now a major part of destinations and businesses who are winning world conferences and meetings, and other European countries have identified this”.
He said making destinations across Ireland, including Killarney, ‘ tourism for all’ destinations could be worth as much as €1 billion to the Irish economy.
He has also called for Killarney’s businesses to come on board with creating ‘Killarney - A Destination for all’ and for all other Kerry businesses to also consider this way forward.