20 Million Reasons To Celebrate Skyfest Success

Business & Finance - Economy

Friday, 19 March 2010 16:10

Written by Mark Dunphy

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Tourism chiefs at Shannon  Development have indicated that the National Lottery Skyfest event in Limerick last weekend generated as much as €20 million in revenue spend for the local economy.

Speaking about the success of the Skyfest extravaganza which took place on Staurday night Eoghan Prendergast, Shannon Development’s Limerick Development Division Manager said; “When all the sums are done we estimate the revenue generated for the city from Skyfest could yield as much as €20 million, or to measure it another way it would be the equivalent of the spend generated from two Thomond Park Stadium events. This combined with the positive national and international media coverage will be of major benefit to us our in efforts to promote Limerick as a ‘must visit’ tourist destination.”

“As the tourism authority for the Shannon Region we are delighted to have secured the Skyfest event for Limerick. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Lottery and the St. Patrick’s Festival Committee for bringing the event to Limerick. It provided us with a superb platform to showcase the best of Limerick to a national and international audience. We were delighted to work with journalists, TV and radio crews from Ireland, the US, China and the UK, who broadcast from the City during the event.”

“Our pre-Skyfest programme of entertainment worked well drawing people to the heart of the city centre to experience its fun side. Preliminary estimates show that our work with hotels, the service sector and transport providers, to put together special short break packages and entertainment to entice visitors for the Skyfest and Limerick’s St. Patrick’s festival proved very successful,” he said.

“We were delighted to provide King John’s as the launching platform for the fireworks and the images of this iconic visitor attraction featured in TV coverage will help brand Limerick internationally. Skyfest was a wonderful vehicle and put Limerick centre stage as a fun loving place to be. We will continue to use the positive images of Limerick created from the event in our future tourism marketing campaigns,” he concluded.