TIPP TOURISM RISING: Thurles tourist office is developing into a key hub for visitors to the county

Thurles tourist office hosted a coffee morning to celebrate the office being open to the public and to allow the various businesses, project groups and general public a chance to mingle and chat about what the Cathedral town and the surrounding area have to offer.

Located just off Liberty Square, in the same premises as the Lár na Páirce GAA Museum, the tourist office has friendly and knowledgeable staff who are really starting to build something special in the town as they bring the various groups together.
Rachael Cooke, the information assistant at the office, said their coffee morning last Wednesday was a great success:

“A lot of the local businesses showed up and lots of others who just dropped in. It turned into a networking event for the people in the town. You could feel the energy from the people and that is what we were looking for. The town needs this to be a success.”

The energy in the room heralded an exciting new era for Thurles. The plan now is to build and connect the various tourist attractions in the surrounding parishes with the tourist office as the hub for the area. The overall aim is to ensure that the tourists arriving in Thurles this spring and summer time, will have plenty of things to do to keep them in the area for longer. Rachael Cooke says that developing communication is the key:

“When you come into the tourist office you can see a lot of the pictures we have of the heartland group on the wall. One of our ideas would be to have them all connected in some way. If a tourist or a group tour goes to Loughmore, then Upperchurch, then to Cormackstown and to Holycross they will have plenty to do. Rather than passing through or coming for matches and going home afterwards, we would love people to see what is in the area and stay a while. We work with a lot of people that are in local businessses and we know that they are super nice people and we want to help them and the tourists arriving to connect.”

The office on Slievenamon Road in Thurles is growing in popularity and is now getting a steady number of visitors. Now that we are moving into a post-pandemic era, people are starting to visit more frequently according to Rachael:
"Word is getting out there now that we are here and the more people come in and visit, the more ideas we get. We are hoping to keep going for a long time and really build this” she concluded.

Seamus King of Lár na Páirce GAA Museum gave a fantastic tour of the museum which added to the experience for all there.

Mary Fogarty of “The Cottage, Loughmore” knows that tourism needs to grow in the Thurles area over the coming years. Attending the recent coffee morning, Mary, who runs the successful tea rooms in Loughmore said:

“It is lovely to see everybody networking and see all the different tourist offerings around the area. People have been astounded to see how much is going on in the area. I met people who have never been in the tourist office before.

“It is of great benefit for people to network. There's a positivity around tourism in the Thurles area now and together we can build something to draw in more people to the area. The networking part of a coffee morning allows like-minded people to come up with new ideas and new ways of promoting the area to attract a wider and more diverse type of tourist,” she said.

Mary added that she would like to see more tourists that journey to the county and the Thurles area simply stay longer:
“In the past, visitors used to come for the day and leave without even staying overnight. And we want to change that. You always have to be one step ahead and thinking ahead. Thank God we are doing really well in Loughmore but this is about being united,” she said.

To increase the numbers within Tipperary and keep people here for a few days, Mary feels more can be done.

“I think offering an authentic visit to a tourist is what is needed. I have experienced it myself when I visited Hungary and Slovenia. When I got there I got on a bus and I was ferried around to different places but they weren't the big tourist attractions, they were the places like the little cheese factories and tiny Lavender farms.

“Micro businesses like those were so interesting to see up close. Meeting the people. Meeting families behind the scenes that were making the cakes, making the cheese and that is what you call an authentic visit.

“So what we can offer here is the history and the experience. In Loughmore a local person can tell you about the mill and the castle and then the McCormacks grave. The visitor can come back then to the Cottage for a cup of tea and to meet the locals. That is so much more enriching and that is an experience for a tourist. Maybe if there was a little bus or something that could ferry people around. That is what I think the future of tourism in the area is.”