SLIGO WELL PLACED FOR JULY REBOOT
AFTER finishing up a 12 month digital media campaign which was beginning to bear fruits, Sligo Tourism was looking forward to the summer.
Sligo had been featured in National Geoggraphic just as the reality of Covid-19 was unfolding across Ireland and the world.
With airports empty and overseas tourists staying put for the foreseeable future, has all of Sligo Tourism’s work gone to waste?
The answer is most certainly not, gauging from the determined attitudes of Sile Garrett Haran and Neil Faulkner from Sligo Tourism.
“We had a really successful spring campaign. The market is struggling and over 4,000 tourism jobs lost, that’s huge,” says Ms Garrettt Haran.
With July 20 th earmarked for the fourth phase of reopening and hotels and tourism part of that, it is a date which Sligo Tourism is acutely focusing on.
Behind the scenes a recovery campaign is being looked at to appeal to domestic tourists, as though air travel restrictions will be somewhat relaxed by July 20 th, it is not expected that Ireland will see the levels of overseas tourists this summer compared to 2019.
“We’re focusing on the domestic market, it’s the only one available,” says Ms Garrett Haran, who admits that the market is going to be ‘competitive’.
“At the minute we’re preparing for July 20 th and to be ready for that date and for tourism to start back up, but we’ ll be waiting to see government guidelines as they could change.”
Talking of the pressures in the tourism industry on businesses and hotels, Ms Garrett Haran says it is difficult for many in the industry.
“Everyone is under pressure. The hotels had fantastic packages and they’re doing all they can. The food trail businesses have adapted to online and delivery and we’re working closely with Sligo BID and the Local Enterprise Office.”
Another hit to tourism is also the cancellation or postponement of festivals across Sligo, a huge blow to many committees and organisers.
“There’s some fantastic people involved in organising these events and it’s such a blow for them but when people are ready to visit we’ ll be ready.”
Ms Garrett Haran also had high praise for tourism offerings and cultural facilities across the county which have adapted during these testing times.
She outlined how The Model in Sligo town had gone online like many others, including the Coleman Music Centre.
“People are constantly adapting and it’s made us stop and think how we can do things differently.”
Along with forming a tourism recovery campaign aimed at domestic tourism, Ms Garrett Haran says with more people working from home this was also something for Sligo Tourism to consider.
“The tagline that Sligo is a great place to visit, stay and invest is one which is more important now more than ever. As we continue to build the Sligo brand, people coming back to Sligo is something to think about.”
Tourism Manager with Sligo Tourism, Neil Faulkner reiterates that right now the organisation is focusing its efforts on July 20 th and working on a recovery campaign.
He told The Sligo Champion that just as the autumn campaign of 2019 was wrapping up and coverage appeared in National Geographic the pandemic hit.
“It could not have been worse timing, we just finished a 12 month digital media campaign and got a feature in National Geographic. We built up really good momentum. What we’ve been doing in the meantime is hearing Sligo stories and keeping Sligo in people’s minds that we are still here and ready when people are.
Neil also mentions the success of the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People and said it was brilliant to see Streedagh and Tubbercurry gaining such prominence in the series.
“We’ ll definitely be working on that in some way. It shows that the whole county has tourism opportunities both domestic and international.”
Now
Faulkner is hoping the recovery campaign they have embarked on simply builds on the digital campaign that was such a success during the last year.
“It’s important to show hotels and businesses that we’re positioning ourselves to give Sligo a chance to get the domestic market. Sligo has always done well during the summer with the domestic market. It has that tradition, with Dublin people especially coming to visit.”
With cases of Covid-19 being a lot less compared to the likes of Mayo and Galway, Faulkner says this may be something people will consider and given that Sligo as a destination is all about the outdoors.
“We’re aiming to build on existing packages of beach yoga, guided walks, selling the outdoors, health, wellbeing, the food trail.”
Faulkner says with people becoming more aware of the benefits of exercise, getting outdoors and taking an interest in where their food comes from, it is something that could feed into the recovery campaign.
“Sligo is very well positioned to take the domestic market. The important thing is, we’re meeting with hotels this week it’s crucial they come on board and we’re showing businesses that there is a campaign ready to go”
Hoping to build on the success of two tourism videos last year, showing Sligo as both a family friendly destination and the adventure capital of Ireland, which gained over 250,000 views in total, Faulkner admits it will be a lot of hard work to come.
“We could see the success of the campaign last year, that is still there, we just need to build on that. For the short term anyway it will be domestic and in 2021 when restrictions have eased we will target the overseas market.
It’s going to be a lot of hard work. Our role is to market the entire county of Sligo. The mood among the tourism industry here in Sligo is one of determination.”
For more visit www.sligotourism.ie.
THE MOOD AMONG THE TOURISM INDUSTRY HERE IN SLIGO IS ONE OF DETERMINATION