25 November 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Anticipation is building ahead of the 2015 Fáilte Ireland Tourism Towns awards with the top ten towns from across the country all firmly in the running for this year’s crown. Two overall winners, Best Large Town and Best Small Town, will be announced at a ceremony in the Morrison Hotel Dublin on Wednesday 25th November.
The Tourism Town Award, which is now in its fourth year, was specifically designed by Fáilte Ireland to encourage more Irish towns and villages to work together to enhance their appeal to tourists visiting their local area. Each year the 100 top scoring towns from the previous years’ Tidy Town Competition are deemed to be eligible and invited to apply for the Tourism Towns Award.
The shortlisted towns for 2015 are:
- Adare, Limerick
- Ardmore, Waterford
- Clonakilty, Cork
- Cobh, Cork
- Kenmare, Kerry
- Kilkenny, Kilkenny
- Killarney, Kerry
- Lismore, Waterford
- Sneem, Kerry
Tralee, Kerry
The shortlisted towns have been subject to a series of unannounced inspections from a team of independent ‘secret shoppers’ who visited each location and assessed the quality of their visitor experience. The independent judges examined all aspects of each town’s appeal and have decided which towns are Ireland’s ‘Best Large Tourism Town’ and ‘Best Small Tourism Town’.
2012 was the first year of the Fáilte Ireland Tourism Towns Award and saw Portmagee in County Kerry crowned the inaugural winner with Kilkenny crowned Best Large Town and Mulranny crowned Best Small Town in 2013. Last year Westport was crowned the 2014 Best Large Tourism Town with Kinsale taking home the title of Best Small Tourism Town, with each receiving a certificate along with a €5,000 grant towards further developing itself as a tourism destination.
