A flagship tourism attraction for the midlands will be developed to compete with more established destinations in other regions of the State, according to the recently published strategy for the development of Co Laois.
The major attraction would be beneficial for Co Laois, said the strategy, which noted that the county had an underdeveloped tourism sector.
However, Mr Norman Black, senior tourism officer with East Coast and Midlands Tourism, said there were a number of proposals from the midlands under "active consideration" and it was hoped that one would emerge before the end of the year.
He said the flagship project, which was earmarked for funding under the National Development Plan, would need to attract a minimum of 100,000 day visitors a year.
The Laois Integrated Strategy for Economic, Social and Cultural Development, which will direct all development in the county over the next 10 years, was published last week.
It said that in 1999, there were 54,000 visitors to the county, amounting to just under 1 per cent of all visitors to Ireland, said the strategy document. Almost a third of visitors to the county in 2000 stayed for less than 24 hours.
Although the east of the midlands was benefiting from continued economic development of Dublin, other parts of the region were suffering, leading to a situation of imbalanced development of the region, said the strategy.
The Laois County Development Board, along with those in the other midland counties of Longford, Westmeath and Offaly, has decided to adopt a joint approach to developing issues affecting the region.
The report said the boards "endorse the Midland Regional Authority's interpretation of the critical spatial issues in the region". These included the region's lack of a natural gateway and weak urban structure, high dependency ratio, high migration rates, slowly rising school population and rising population at retirement age.
The boards also said, however, that in the eastern part of the midlands region, "the level of public service provision in these areas has not kept pace with development".
They also recognised that there was considerable potential throughout the region to improve tourism opportunities, most of which were as yet undeveloped - the Sliabh Bloom mountain area, for example.
Despite the influence of Dublin on the development of part of the region, the report noted that the county was still predominantly rural.
Laois, said the strategy, "has the most favourable agricultural sector of the midland counties. It has the largest average farm size and the largest concentration of farms in the most profitable sectors".
However, it continued, the number of farms was declining. It was anticipated that more and more farm households would become dependant on direct-income supplements and income from off-farm employment.
Teagasc figures for the midland region, the strategy said, showed that 41 per cent of farms were not viable. Agri-tourism would be developed, the report said, to obtain the crossover of benefits between tourism development and agriculture.
As regards industrial development, the report also noted the low foreign direct investment in Co Laois, but said some of the county's strengths were its availability of development lands, natural resources and competitive cost base. However the report also noted "continuing high levels of localised long-term unemployment in the region".