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KERRY COUNTY COUNCIL has clinched a coveted national award this week, having been selected as outright winner of the Irish Public Sector Service to Tourism Award 2016 for its newly published tourism strategy.

The ‘Excellence in Business’ Awards to Local Government, sponsored by the Irish Public Sector Magazine, are awarded annually to companies and authorities who can demonstrate outstanding service, continuity, track record and general excellence in business to the public sector, Irish companies, and to the people of Ireland. Last year, the council won the ITIC Best Tourism Innovation Award at the inaugural National Tourism Awards.

The new Kerry Tourism Strategy and Action Plan 2016-2022 is the culmination of two years’ work by the council and the Destination Kerry Tourism Forum and follows extensive local, national and international consultation with the public, visitors, agencies and trade and is the most in-depth analysis of tourism ever undertaken in the county.

The new report sets out 272 specific actions to be implemented across seven key areas over the short, medium or long term, including community tourism, events and festivals, education, enterprise and innovation, environment, natural and cultural heritage, infrastructure, adventure, and branding and marketing.

The prioritisation of the extensive number of projects which were agreed following full public consultation was based on the need to
extend the tourism activity into the shoulder season. A focus is also placed on the promotion of Kerry's green and clean image, further development of the Wild Atlantic Way, and development of projects with significant visitor appeal.

The vision set out in the strategy is “to maximise, in a sustainable manner, tourism’s contribution to the quality of life, economy, employment and local community development, paying particular attention to nurturing and protecting the natural, built, cultural and linguistic heritage of the county.”

Kerry is Ireland’s premier regional holiday destination. It has been welcoming visitors for generations and today attracts 1.7m overseas and domestic holidaymakers which generate over €420m in tourist-related income for the county. The county currently attracts 13% of all overseas visitors to Ireland and one in three American visitors includes Kerry on their itineraries. It has the greatest concentration of tourist accommodation outside of Dublin - up to 50,000 beds in the approved and unapproved sectors.

Kerry is also more dependent on tourism than any other county with over 20% of its workforce employed in tourism-related enterprises and has over 9,000 people directly employed in the accommodation and hospitality sectors.

Moira Murrell, Chief Executive of Kerry County Council, welcomed the award saying: “The Tourism Strategy which forms an integral part of Kerry County Council’s Local Economic and Community Plan 2016-2022, is a living document that will respond to new challenges, changing market trends and consumer behaviour and will be reviewed and updated annually.”
 

 
Welcoming the award for the Kerry County Tourism Strategy at County Buildings this week, Cllr Robert Beasley (chairman, Tourism Strategic Policy Committee), Cllr Michael O’Shea (mayor), Moira Murrell (chief executive), Joan McCarthy (head of tourism development), John Griffin (tourism officer).