REGIONAL FOCUS: LIMERICK CITY AND COUNTY COUNCIL
Tourism in Limerick Limerick is in the penultimate year of its Limerick Tourism Development Strategy, developed by Limerick City and County Council. The 2019-2023 strategy envisages 1.1 million visitors to Limerick per annum, generating €360 million in revenue and creating 1,500 new jobs by 2023.
King John’s Castle.
Adare Heritage Centre and Castle Desmond.
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The framework for tourism in the Treaty City and County, which follows on from the success of Limerick’s reign as European City of Sport in 2011 and National City of Culture in 2014, is based around four areas that will “provide a solid foundation in terms of the attributes and assets of the destination on which to build”: waterways; activities; heritage; and arts and culture. The objectives within the plan are broken down into four targets for the Council: ensuring that Limerick is “internationally and nationally recognised as a highly appealing tourism destination with a strong reputation for the quality of its water-based activity, arts and culture, and heritage attractions”; to ensure a “coordinated approach to tourism and to galvanise the enthusiasm of key actors”; to support growth
in the local tourism sector; and to present a “delivery mechanism for national policies, objectives, and targets that offer the greatest potential for growing the tourism sector” in Limerick. On a county level, Limerick generated revenue of over €307 million from tourism in 2017, with almost 931,000 visitors; from this starting point, the Council has set targets of reaching over 793,000 overseas visitors, generating €313.2 million of revenue, and 379,706 visits from Irish residents, generating €47.4 million in revenue, in 2023. With 205,000 jobs supported by the sector in 2017, the strategy aims to add 1,500 new jobs by 2023. The unforeseen Covid-19 pandemic does of course caveat performance in this sector, but Limerick City and
