Inishowen 'being left behind' the rest of Donegal when promoting tourism, claim councillors

At this week’s Inishowen Municipal District meeting, councillors said the county is not being sold ‘as a whole’ by the council’s tourism unit and Inishowen is losing out.

Councillor Martin McDermott said he feels ‘strongly’ that the promotion of Donegal ‘should all be under one umbrella’ and ‘Explore Inishowen shouldn’t have to come to us as MD, looking for peanuts of money to do one of the most important jobs – to sell our peninsula.

"It should be funded through Donegal County Council, through our tourism unit and I think there’s a gap there between Inishowen and how Inishowen is sold as a whole by the tourism unit.

Colr McDermott said there ‘can’t be a situation’ where Inishowen is ‘fighting for bits and pieces’.

"I personally feel, when it comes to tourism from a county-wide perspective, Inishowen is always being left behind. That gap needs to be filled and I want to see what’s being done to ensure that gap is closed.”

Colr JohNny McGuinness agreed and asked that a study be undertaken to ‘ascertain the levels of investment countywide, from our economic department, in relation to the fair promotion of the Inishowen peninsula.”

Colr McGuinness said Inishowen is being ‘left up here by ourselves and our tourism promotors are being starved of the financial clout necessary to promote the peninsula’.

He outlined how there were promotional ‘one-day concerts’ in other areas of the county last year, while ‘we had tourism operators on our own doorstep looking for support to print a magazine or run a festival.”

Colr Nicholas Crossan said that when the council budget is passed, ‘there doesn’t seem to be any further participation at local level to see what is the best for your area, for Inishowen’’

Mary McBride of the council’s economic development department said she would bring back the ‘very strong points’ to the tourism unit.