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Kerry tourism showing signs of recovery

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Tourism Industry bosses in Killarney remain upbeat despite a recent Fáilte Ireland survey saying that tourist spending in Kerry for last year had dropped by 46% compared to 2019 figures.

Despite the large percentage drop – attributed to pandemic related closures - Kerry performed well in terms of the share of visitors to the county and tourism spend.

Tourism in the county generated €162 million in 2021 according to estimates on spend by Fáilte Ireland. This is compared to a spend of €299 million in 2019.

Domestic trips to Kerry in 2021 were over half those in 2019, despite the widespread enforced closure of tourism and hospitality businesses for a considerable portion of 2021. According to the Central Statistics Office Household Travel Survey, there were 602,000 domestic trips to Kerry in 2021, compared to 1,105,000 in 2019.

Kerry is in second place on the highest tourist spend list in a year that was largely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, lockdowns and a lowered intent to travel due to health and safety regulations.

Visitors stayed an average of 3.8 nights in the county, an impressive result demonstrating the value of a sustained year-long campaign to communicate the variety of experiences made available to visitors by the Kerry Tourism Industry Federation (KTIF).

“Taking everything into account, the report shows a relatively positive outcome for Kerry in terms of maintaining our share of domestic tourists to the county and achieving tourism spends that outperform proportionately to the amount of time tourism businesses were operational during the year,” said Patrick O’Donoghue, chairperson of the marketing committee of KTIF.

The sector is showing promising signs of recovery thus far in 2022 with domestic tourism remaining strong combined with the welcome return of overseas visitors to the county.

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10-minute plays will linger in the memory

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The West End House School of Arts is delighted to take part in this year’s St Patrick’s Day Festival with a special evening of entertaining readings on Friday, March 13 at 7.30pm.

It promises to be a vibrant showcase of five original 10-minute plays written by emerging local playwrights, each of whom has recently completed a playwriting course with Fiona Doyle (pictured).


Diverse in style and subject matter, these beautifully crafted pieces promise an evening of laughter, tears, and powerful storytelling and each reading will be performed by West End House actors from Kerry.


Together, they highlight the remarkable talent of these up-and-coming writers and actors, who are the future of theatre in our community.

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Get your scrap together

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Following the success of the first ever Killarney Lions Club scrap metal collection in 2025, the Club will again run the event this year in partnership with KWD Recycling on March 28, at Killarney Racecourse.

Similar to 2025, money raised through recycling the metal will go towards improving facilities for families attending the children’s cancer unit in Cork University Hospital, as part of an overall fundraising drive being coordinated by Lions Clubs all over Munster.

The Club is asking people to bring non-ferrous scrap metals such as aluminium, copper, brass, zinc and stainless steel (no white goods such as fridges/cookers washing machines). Volunteers will be on hand from 9am until 4pm to take donations of scrap and work with KWD Recycling to remove it for processing.

“Although Lions Clubs in Munster have already raised some funds for CUH, more is still needed, so we’re delighted that KWD Recycling is working with us again to support this very worthwhile cause”, said Jason Higgins, President of Killarney Lions Club. “We’re asking anyone who has scrap metal at home, at work or on the farm now or in the next few weeks to please bring it to the Racecourse on the day because everything we collect will make a difference.”

Tadhg Healy, Sales Manager at KWD Recycling added that “We will recycle any high quality scrap metal that we collect – it can be quite valuable and of course it’s better for the environment if it’s recycled instead of being dumped. On top of that, the main thing with this collection is to help families of children with cancer, so hopefully we’ll get a good response from everyone and raise as much money as possible through this event”.

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