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Representatives from Tralee receiving the award in Dublin this afternoon.
IN fantastic news for the town, Tralee has won the top tourism town in Ireland at the Fáilte Ireland Tourism Towns awards.
Tralee beat off neighbours Killarney and the two other nominees in the Best Large Town category to claim the prize.
It’s an incredible boost to tourism and richly deserved considering the amount of effort has gone into promoting the town over the past few years.
Tralee was one of four towns shortlisted for the Best Large Town award Cobh, Kilkenny and neighbours Killarney in the same category when the winners were announced at a ceremony in The Morrison Hotel, Dublin.
A great video was made to promote Tralee too, with John Drummey describing the town’s attractions (see below)…
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The Best Small Town award went to Lismore, Co Waterford, who now share the accolade of Ireland’s top Tourism Town with Tralee.
Congrautlating Tralee on winning the award, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring TD said: “Congratulations to Tralee on what is a wonderful achievement and worthy recognition for all that they have done to welcome visitors to their town. These awards are all about honouring the towns that put tourism at the centre of what they do and both winners really impressed, with their local communities pulling together for the greater good of their town. The people of Tralee truly understand tourism and value their visitors. Ultimately, this shows in the quality of what they have to offer and in the warmth of their welcome.”
Kieran Ruttledge of Tralee Chamber Alliance, accepting the award on the town’s behalf, said: “Tralee is delighted with this vote of confidence in our collaborative efforts towards the development of a top class, sustainable tourism destination following on from gold medal success and improved performance in the National Tidy Towns 2015 and a double gold medal award in the Entente Florale in 2014.
“The Tourism Towns Competition has been the catalyst for further community involvement in tourism initiatives like the tourist information kiosk staffed by volunteers, the Blennerville Windmill and Tralee-Dingle Model Railway projects.
“In Kerry, tourism is everybody’s business and in Tralee almost 1,000 people are now directly employed in tourism related enterprises,” he said.
The Top Ten Highly Recommended Tourism Towns shortlisted for 2015 were:
Best Small Town
Adare, Co Limerick
Ardmore, Co Waterford
Clonakilty, Co Cork
Kenmare, Co Kerry
Lismore, Co Waterford
Sneem, Co Kerry
Best Large Town
Cobh, Co. Cork
Killarney, Co Kerry
Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny
Tralee, Co Kerry
The Tourism Town Award, which is now in its fourth year, was specifically designed by Fáilte Ireland to encourage more Irish towns and villages to work together to enhance their appeal to tourists visiting their local area.
Each year, the 100 top scoring towns from the previous years’ Tidy Town Competition are deemed to be eligible and invited invited to apply for the Tourism Towns Award.
The shortlisted towns were subjected to a series of unannounced inspections from a team of independent ‘secret shoppers’ who visited each location and assessed the quality of their visitor experience.
