Beara businesses urged to back new tourism plan for the region

TOURISM-related businesses in the Beara area can sign up to feature in a new promotional website that will go live at the end of May.

‘We are hoping that the vast majority of the 300-plus tourism businesses in the locality will take the opportunity to become part of this major new initiative,’ said Tadhg O’Sullivan, secretary of Destination Beara.

The website – destinationbeara.ie – will not just promote the Beara Peninsula but south Kerry too, and there will also be an active voluntary organisation to develop and support tourism initiatives on the peninsula,’ he added.

Boland Marketing – as well as students from the Tourism and Hospitality Department of Cork Institute of Technology – has already carried out extensive research, according to Tara Hanley, who is the current chairperson of Destination Beara. 

The well-known hotelier and TV personality, John Brennan, of The Park Hotel in Kenmare attended a presentation about Destination Beara at the Beara Coast Hotel in Castletownbere this week.

Nine distinct regions from Allihies to Adrigole, Bere Island, Bonane, Castletownbere, Eyeries/Ardgroom, Glengarriff, Kenmare, to Lauragh/Tuosist, will form the basis of this new organisation, as will the already well-established Grand Day Out marketing group. For the sum of €100 per annum, each business will be given a page on the new website, which Tara Hanley said comes with the necessary IT support and ‘makes good economic sense’ not just for the business, but for the region. 

The re-branding of the peninsula, featuring a rugged outline of Beara’s hills, comes in the form of a new logo, designed by Eamon O’Sullivan of Odin Designs. That too will be launched on Tuesday night.

‘Ultimately,’ Tara Hanley said, ‘this is about being able to compete on a national and international level with successful areas, such as the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula and Loop Head while retaining our own identify.’