Tourism in the Limerick region is continuing its upwards trajectory as new figures show the growth rate at Shannon is the fastest of all Irish airports.
With a direct correlation between Shannon passenger and Limerick tourism growth, new figures released by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) is good news for the Limerick city region.
ITIC’s ‘Irish Tourism Dashboard’ for August shows the number of tourists that flew into Shannon in August grew at a greater rate than any other Irish airport.
The 213,000 tourists that landed in Shannon amounted to a 9% increase on the same month last year – a spin off that will impact positively on Limerick.
Welcoming the figures, Director of Social Development with responsibility for tourism at Limerick City and County Council, Gordon Daly said: “Limerick saw the largest increase in domestic visitor numbers in the country in 2017. This represents a huge increase of 35% on numbers from 2016 as 284,000 people made the journey to Limerick last year. Overseas visitor numbers also increased in 2017 with a total of 647,000 visitors. There are more than 21,000 already employed in the tourism industry in Limerick, and an increase in visitor numbers will result in an increase in the number employed in the sector.
“With Limerick’s unique position as the Gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East and the newly created Hidden Heartlands brand, our approach going forward is to work with key stakeholders which is central to developing tourism in Limerick, as is the continuing growth and expansion of Shannon Airport.”
The good news and strong performance continued apace for Shannon Airport, as the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) released figures on flight activity into airports in September, with Shannon Airport seeing an increase in commercial terminal flight movements of over 16%, resulting in the busiest month in over a decade for Shannon.
The publication of the ITIC and IAA figures adds to an already very positive month for Shannon as it was chosen by the European airline community as this year’s winner of the Airport of the Year Award from the European Regions Airline Association. The airport’s third time securing the prestigious title.
Shannon Airport recently unveiled a new ‘making it easy’ marketing campaign to highlight its ease of passenger experience for travellers. The branding campaign is now being rolled out and highlights how the airport will keep #MakingItEasy for passengers while creating awareness of the enhancements the airport has undergone in the past few years.
It comes as Shannon completes a major €40 million five-year investment programme intended to make the airport better and easier for customers to use.
Commenting on what has been a hugely positive year for the airport, Shannon Airport, Managing Director Andrew Murphy said that the development of the M20 from Limerick to Cork will open up a whole new growth opportunity for one of the region’s key economic drivers.
“The tourism growth rate is very much in keeping with the wider increase in passenger numbers during the summer season,” said Andrew.
“We are having our best summer season in a decade and while we knew our wider passenger numbers were up, this breakdown from ITIC for the tourism sector is very encouraging. It is particularly welcome news given that we have completed a major €40 million investment programme to make the airport better and easy for our customers to use.
“Tourism is huge for our catchment, which runs from Cork right up to the North-West and Shannon is a key enabler of it. We’re the premier gateway on the Wild Atlantic Way for international tourists and this year has proven yet again the market demand for services into Shannon.”
And CEO of Shannon Group, which operates Shannon Airport, Matthew Thomas has said that the more successful the airport becomes, the better it will be for Limerick. “The success of the airport is critical to Limerick’s growing business community and is cited by FDI’s companies establishing in Limerick and the mid-west as a key reason for them locating here. It is no coincidence that 40% of US FDI is within our catchment area,” he said.
“To ensure future growth it is vital that we all support Shannon’s air services. The more we grow, the more the region will grow. The team at the airport has worked really hard and this validates the confidence we have in our capacity to grow services and passenger numbers and, in doing so, deliver real gains to the region.”
This year’s growth is down to the addition of a range of new services that are supporting the business community and leisure industry in Limerick and the mid-west. These include a new Toronto flight with Air Canada and new services to Barcelona-Reus, Bristol and Liverpool with Ryanair, while the airline also increased Manchester frequencies. The range of services is further boosted by Ryanair who have announced a twice-weekly service to Ibiza commencing in spring 2019, strengthening sun holiday capacity from Shannon by another 22,000 seats.