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Cork city and county has been bizarrely omitted from a new promotional campaign from Fáilte Ireland aimed at promoting Ireland's western seaboard to visitors flying into Shannon Airport.
The campaign is aimed at promoting counties Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Clare and Kerry as locations to visit for American tourists flying into Shannon Airport. Despite the fact that Cork's nearest transatlantic airport is Shannon and that it is closer to Shannon than anywhere north of Galway the county has not been included in the campaign.
Cork's omission comes as a double blow, following this week's news that negotiations to reinstate the Swansea to Cork ferry have failed. Currently Cork Airport does not handle transatlantic flights, and the imposition of a large debt on the airport by the Government makes their introduction less
likely.
According to a spokesperson for Fáilte Ireland some Cork attractions have been included in the campaign though the county itself has not been included. The spokesperson said that the campaign was dependent on funding from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism and it was the Department that decided that Cork is not within Shannon's catchment area, despite the fact that the next nearest transatlantic airport to Cork is Dublin.
The issue is now likely to be raised in the Dáil by Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen who said, "This may seem like a parochial or geographic argument but it is much more important than that. There are no transatlantic flights into Cork Airport and there are not likely to be now that the Government has saddled the airport with a massive debt that will prevent it from competing effectively for new routes.
"On top of that, Cork is now also without a direct ferry link to the UK which for a county of Cork's size and location in the far south west of the country is a major loss. Shannon Airport is therefore the de facto gateway to cork for transatlantic visitors and also an important airport for visitors coming from the UK and Europe".
He added, "To leave Cork out of this latest strategy is a slap in the face to the tourism industry in Cork which is having to fight extremely hard for business in the increasingly uncertain economic climate. Add to that the damage that has been done to transport connections to Cork; it is quite clear that the county is at a disadvantage."
"I'm not asking for special treatment for Cork, but I am asking that the county is not unfairly disadvantaged in this way. Thousands of jobs in Cork depend on tourism and the county must be given an equal chance to compete for business along with the other counties of the Atlantic coast."
Conor Healy, President of the Cork Chamber said that it was important to distinguish between what is traditionally described as "the west" of the country and the catchment area of Shannon Airport. He said that describing Cork as not part of the Shannon catchment area was clearly wrong.
"Shannon is the primary gateway to cork. In terms of marketing inward tourism to Ireland Cork is clearly part of the Shannon catchment area and should be included as such".
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