If the tourism market reaches its potential in Clare, young people that have emigrated will be able to return to the county.
Cillian Murphy is the co-founder of Loop Head Tourism and has recently completed a masters degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. At present he is one of the key figures in a new venture which would see the creation of a series of trailways and an electric bus route in West Clare.
He believes this project will benefit the entire West Clare community. “For us if we can walk away in a year or two year’s time with a public transport system on the peninsula that caters for the whole community here and the tourism industry in effect is funding that.
“Our belief from day one in Loop Head Tourism was that tourism has a job to do which is a tool for sustaining our communities, it’s not just a financial, economic thing it has social and environmental responsibilities too, we’ve always felt that tourism has a job of work to do, it’s not just about putting money in a particular business person’s pocket, for the industry to be truly sustainable in the long term”.
Murphy maintains this is the industry that can reignite West Clare and ensure the area is well-populated and can see the return of those who have emigrated from towns and villages all across the region.
“There’s buckets of examples at the minute, Barcelona has a mayor for two years to manage tourism, in Venice they’re having protest to get people out, there were signs in Majorca saying ‘refugees welcome tourists out’, we’re starting to see the impacts of over-tourism and we want to live here, tourism is going to be the tool that allows us to live here and allows our communities to thrive and survive and our kids to come home and have jobs, the families that move into the area that in a way is going to be the primary economic driver for the area but it has to be done in a way that’s sympathetic to where we live and how we live, the electric bus is a brilliant example of if tourism can provide infrastructure that the locals, visitors and host community can use that’s the synergy that’s well worth chasing”.