17-06-2025
Joint venture for Tipperary tourism project would be a ‘game-changer'
The call was made at the June meeting of the Thurles Municipal District by councillor Jim Ryan, who highlighted that the initiative had been unsuccessful in accessing funding under the latest round of the Community Recognition Fund, as well as other funding sources previously.
Thurles Tourism Office had submitted an application for the latest round of the scheme for their tourism bus for the town, which would see visitors to the area picked up at the train station and driven around to see the sights in the area, such as Holycross Abbey, the Rock of Cashel, and Cormackstown Museum before being dropped back to their accommodation in the county or to the train station so they can continue their journey.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Ryan said that the idea behind the scheme is aiming to make tourism in Tipperary easier to access.
"The thinking behind it is to make it easier for people to come to Thurles, just get the train, they will be transported around various local tourist attractions and brought back to their accommodation and back to the train station,' he outlined.
"In my opinion it's a no-brainer, it would be a game-changer regarding local tourism if they were successful in getting funding for it,' the independent councillor added.
Questioning where the Thurles Tourist Office go from here with regards to accessing funding, the local councillor outlined that the project had been turned down under various funding streams in the past.
"Could it be some sort of link up with yourselves [Tipperary County Council] and the Tourist Office in Thurles regarding that project because something that I believe strongly is tourism and if there's something there to help it, and bring tourism to the Thurles area I think we should be supporting it.
"It's very disappointing for them that year after year they keep applying for various funding streams and they keep getting turned down,' he added.
'Could there be a joint partnership between the Thurles Tourism Office and the tourism section of the county council, maybe they come up with funding and the county council come up and match the funding, at this stage they've really gone for every single stream of funding,' Cllr Ryan said.
Councillors were informed at the meeting that the matter would come down to tourism budgets, which are set out in advance, but that members from the tourism section would talk to the head of the section to review the budget to see if there's any scope to get the scheme up and running for 2026.
