Tourism chiefs preparing for season
AS Covid-19 travelling restrictions ease, the Garden County is preparing itself for an influx of visitors over the coming weeks.
While the tourism sector welcomes the likely return of tourists, there are still concerns that a repeat of the chaotic scenes prior to lockdown, where popular Wicklow locations were swamped by visitors, could result in a second wave of Covid-19 and cause the introduction of another lockdown.
Phase two travel restrictions are expected to ease on June 8 from 5k to 20k and Wicklow’s tourism operators are gearing up for a busy period once the county is back open to visitors.
Fred Verdier of County Wicklow Tourism said: ‘Obviously everyone involved in the tourism industry is happy to have some sort of tourism back.
‘We want to get the industry and associated businesses back up running but we don’t want to go to what happened pre-lockdown, when there was chaos in some places.
‘Once the 20k limit comes into play, we would expect a lot of Dublin visitors, especially to north Wicklow destinations, such as Kilruddery or Powerscourt. People still need to be sensible. Adhere to the 5k limit and the 20k limit when that is introduced.
‘Wash your hands and practise social distancing. The last thing we need is for the second Covid-19 wave. We have all experienced over two months of lockdown now and the last thing we want to experience is another lockdown because of a second wave.’
While Wicklow’s tourism industry and suffered greatly during lockdown, there is still the hope that more people will holiday at home rather than risk traveling abroad.
‘Staycations would be a more sensible and practical holiday than one abroad, especially when you consider some of the measures at airports and the need to quarantine.
‘Ireland is a great place to holiday, and especially Wicklow. I know some accommodation providers and camp-sites I talk to have already started experiencing bookings starting up again.’
Meanwhile, Wicklow is due to hosts its second Eco-trail event in September, with bookings flooding in over recent weeks.
‘ The trails will take participants to some of Wicklow’s most scenic locations including Bray Head, Killruddery Gardens, The Great Sugarloaf, Powerscourt Waterfall, the Wicklow Way, Lough Tay viewing point and Piers Gate and all the way to Roundwood and the Vartry Reservoir.
‘We have received over 200 entries over the past two and a half weeks,’ confirmed Fred.
‘It’s still on track to take place on Saturday, September 26, and we are actually up by 25 per cent on the number of bookings compared to this time last year.
‘ We have benefited from the cancellation of so many others event, which isn’t something we wished for, but it looks like the second Eco-trail Wicklow will be very well attended.’