5 June 2017
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
- Ireland’s Most Popular Visitor Attractions Revealed
- A year of strong growth reflected as Fáilte Ireland publishes list of the nation’s best performing tourism attractions in 2016
Fáilte Ireland, today, have published their annual list of Ireland’s top visitor attractions with most attractions registering strong growth reflecting the strong tourism growth in tourism during 2016. The most popular fee-paying attraction remains the Guinness Storehouse which experienced a 10% jump in visitors last year, welcoming 1.6m visitors through their gates. Amongst Irelands ‘free to enter’ attractions, the National Gallery of Ireland continues to lead the way with numbers up 5% to over 755,000. Amongst the nation’s fee-paying attractions, the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience and Dublin Zoo both also registered very strong performances last year with the cliffs enjoying a particularly significant jump in business.
The top five fee-paying attractions during 2016 were:
- Guinness Storehouse – 1,647,408 (+10%)
- Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience – 1,427,166 (+14%)
- Dublin Zoo – 1,143,908 (+3%)
- National Aquatic Centre – 1,037,992 (+4.5%)
- Book of Kells – 890,781 (+6%)
Amongst Irelands ‘free to enter’ attractions, while the National Gallery of Ireland once again lead the way, there were impressive performances from the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Doneraile Wildlife Park – the latter’s 11% growth allowing it to climb the rankings into the top five free to enter sites in 2016. .
The top five free to enter attractions during 2016 were:
- The National Gallery of Ireland – 755,577 (+5%)
- Irish Museum of Modern Art – 584,856 (+20%)
- National Botanic Gardens – 583,539 (+5.5%)
- Doneraile Wildlife Park (Co Cork) – 480,000 (+11%)
- National Museum of Ireland – 479,261 (+4.8%)
Commenting on today’s figures, Paul Kelly, CEO of Fáilte Ireland, said “Our visitor attractions are a great barometer for tourism activity and the growth across most attractions reflects a record tourism year. This growth can be even stronger if we all work together to unlock the further potential of our natural landscapes and built heritage. If we take a site such as the spectacular sea cliffs at Sliabh Liag, it has a similar appeal as the Cliffs of Moher – yet the latter receives eight times as many visitors. This is just one example of the many of our attractions and natural assets which have the potential to generate even more visitors, revenue and jobs for local communities. Failte Ireland is committed to work with all parties to realise the full potential of these visitor attractions, we work in strong partnership with local authorities and communities, Coillte, the OPW and the National Parks and Wildlife Service amongst others to achieve this. Together we need to do more and move faster on this agenda and we call on all those who want to grow their local tourism sector to work with us to deal with the obstacles and grasp the opportunities which are available.”
TOP 20 FEE-PAYING VISITOR ATTRACTIONS
- Guinness Storehouse Dublin 1,647,408
- Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, Clare 1,427,166
- Dublin Zoo 1,143,908
- National Aquatic Centre , Dublin 1,037,992
- Book of Kells, Dublin
890,781 - Tayto Park, Meath
762,000 - St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin 563,000
- Castletown House & Parklands,Kildare 547,324
- Powerscourt House & Gardens, Wicklow 467,507
- Fota Wildlife Park, Cork
465,281 - Kylemore Abbey & Garden, Galway 458,000
- Blarney Castle, Cork 420,000
- Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin 390,970
- Kilkenny Castle Kilkenny,
384,918 - Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Clare 352,286
- Rock of Cashel Tipperary,
338,830 - Emo Court House & Gardens, Laois 293,056
- Old Jameson Distillery, Dublin
269,000 - Dublin Castle, Dublin
253,786 - Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
229,085
TOP 20 FREE VISITOR ATTRACTIONS
- The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 755,577
- Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 584,856
- National Botanic Gardens , Dublin 583,539
- Doneraile Wildlife Park, Cork
480,000 - National Museum of Ireland , Kildare St, Dublin 479,261
- Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin 413,900
- National Museum, Collins Barracks, Dublin 411,391
- Farmleigh, Dublin
383,335 - Newbridge Silverware Museum, Kildare 350,000
- National Museum – Natural History, Dublin 317,269
- Galway City Museum Galway
213,390 - Connemara National Park, Galway 210,812
- The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
193,229 - Crawford Art Gallery, Cork 178,302
- Sliabh Liag Cliffs, Donegal 177,333
- Malin Head Viewing Point, Donegal 162,468
- Kilmacurragh Gardens Wicklow,
156,045 - National Museum of Country Life, Mayo 107,855
- Grianan of Aileach , Donegal
104,398 - Gallery of Photography, Dublin
80,000
