Cliffs slip as Storehouse passes 1m visitors

TOP ATTRACTIONS:HAVING A PINT of Guinness has long been a rite of passage for tourists coming here. Now a trip to the Dublin brewery's Storehouse visitor centre seems to be another one.

It attracted 1,038,910 visitors last year, according to Fáilte Ireland, the first time it has drawn more than a million people since it opened, almost nine years ago. It remains the State’s most popular attraction.

The Cliffs of Moher slipped from second to third place in the list of most popular attractions, losing more than 132,000 visitors between 2007 and 2008.

Katherine Webster, director of the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, said the 14 per cent change matched the reduction in visitors to the area. “The drop in passenger numbers to Shannon Airport was 13 per cent and to Cork Airport was 13.5 per cent.”

She said she didn’t believe the drop was related to the €8 parking fee introduced in 2007. That was the busiest year at the cliffs, with more than 940,000 visitors, according to Webster. “The majority of overseas visitors to the Cliffs of Moher have no issue with it. The complaints are mainly from Irish people and, given the volume of visitors overall to the cliffs, quite small in number.”

The news was better for Dublin Zoo, which received 932,000 visitors and was the second-most-visited attraction last year.

The National Aquatic Centre, in north Dublin, saw a big jump in its numbers, with an extra 141,654 visitors. Dublin Castle enjoyed an even bigger surge, with more than twice as many visitors last year as in 2007.

Of last year’s 10 most popular fee-paying attractions, however, six saw a decline in visitor numbers.

By far the most popular free attraction in 2008 was the National Gallery of Ireland, in Dublin, with 742,332 visitors. The next most popular was the Irish Museum of Modern Art, with 440,000 – a drop of 45,000 compared with 2007.

Cultural tourism is worth €2 billion a year to the economy, according to Fáilte Ireland. Its director of business development and investment, Paul Keeley, said almost 3.4 million overseas visitors came to Ireland on cultural or historical visits in 2008.