LONG READ: Tipperary County Council welcome SMART five-year tourism roadmap

Tourism and economic growth across Tipperary dominated proceedings at the County Council’s most recent monthly meeting on Monday, September 8, thanks largely to a five-year roadmap from Tipperary Tourism Company titled ‘Growing the Value of Tourism in Tipperary: Our Roadmap 2025-2030’.

The presentation was made by Helen King, who became Chairwoman of Tipperary Tourism earlier this year.

The roadmap serves as a strategic vision to “enhance Tipperary’s position as Ireland’s premier inland visitor destination through sustainable growth, collaborative partnerships, and exceptional visitor experiences.

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Established in 2015, Tipperary Tourism Company seeks to promote tourism across the county and focuses on marketing inland destinations, encouraging sustainability by improving current offerings and extending visitor stays, and advocating on behalf of tourist attractions and the hospitality industry in Tipperary.

Ms King explained to all present their desire to deliver a SMART roadmap when it comes to Tipperary tourism, with a detailed plan of how to consistently grow the industry county-wide between now and 2030.

The roadmap was made by working with a specialist consultancy agency called Repucon, which hosted in-depth interviews, focus groups, workshops, and surveys with tourism partners, business owners, and government representatives in the lead up to devising the plan.

The SMART roadmap was born from this research by breaking down the findings into five key categories; sustainability, marketing, alignment, representative, and Tipperary Experience.

Sustainability looks to increase the profile that Tipperary has as a sustainable tourist destination and increase the number of toursim businesses that are commited to sustainable practices.

Marketing attemps to grow the impact of Tipperary Tourism’s marketing activity to increase the economic value of peak season business and try to extend the length of the tourism season across the county.

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Alignment is about enhancing government structures to develop the capacity of Tipperary Tourism and allow them to influence and advise on tourism development activity.

Representative simply looks to grow the number of businesses engaged within the Tipperary Tourism network and work in collaboration with one another to increase footfall and ecnomic growth.

Finally, Tipperary Experience is about motivating domestic and international visitors to stay in Tipperary by playing to the county’s strengths as an outdoor and heritage led destination.

Ms King stressed that sustainable tourism across the county is high on their list of priorities.

As part of the roadmap, Tipperary Tourism wish to encourage and support tourism partners by offering help acquiring sustainability certifications and training relevant to their needs.

They’ll also look to promote immersive and culturally slow tourism experiences that encourage longer stays in the county and showcase the depth of outdoor experiences. Finally they’ll look to maximise regenerative toursim practices that allow local communities and visitors to leave the county in a better place then they found it.

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The marketing goals as part of the roadmap mainly look at increasing awareness of Tipperary as a year-round destination for both domestic and some targetted international markets.

This will be done through brand development with existing brands operating in Tipperary, establishing more of an online presence and showcasing what the county has to offer using AI and targetted content, and working to attract visitors to Tipperary outside of the summer months and popular holidays throughout the calendar year.

A ‘visitor in your own County day’ is one of the impact projects suggested by Tipperary Tourism as part of the marketing roadmap. This essentially encourages locals living in the area to act like a tourist for a day and visit local sites, cafés, restaurants, and pubs as though they were visiting from across the county border.

Alignment includes creating a stronger partnership between those in the Tipperary tourist industry with the likes of Ireland’s Ancient East and Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, whilst advertising Tipperary as somewhere where future industry initiatives and projects could flourish.

Representative looks to increase the roles and responsibilities taken on by Tipperary Tourism, and allowing board members to deliver annual programmes of activities and projects, building a financially sustainable model to support local resources, and growing the number of businesses aligned with Tipperary Tourism year-on-year.

Finally, Tipperary Experience looks to sell the county by using its strengths; heritage sites, outdoor experiences, good food, live music, festivals, and world class hospitality to give the county a more uniqie indentity and tourism culture than it currently boasts.

Ms Kelly’s presentation was met with largely positive remarks from members of the County Council. Cllr Máirín McGrath said the direction of Tipperary tourism over the next five years looked “positive”, and welcomed the idea of the ‘visitor in your own county’ idea, citing Mayo Day as a similar concept that has yielded good results in the past.

Cllr Declan Burgess echoed Cllr McGrath’s positivity, and once again encouraged festivals and two-day events across weekends as a way to boost the local economy as well as tourism in the county.

Cllr Séamie Morris added that the ever-growing popularity and accessibility to sport in Tipperary could be used in conjunction with the five-year roadmap.

He argued that sporting success stories such as Tipperary winning the All Ireland SHC Final against Cork back in July had a knock-on effect in terms of local spending, and that Tipperary’s rich sporting culture could be used in the future to help grow tourism across the Premier County.

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