Cobh – A Top Four Tourism Town

Cobh recently received its award for being in the Top Four in the large towns category of the Tourism Towns competition organised by Fáilte Ireland. The Cobh delegation of Mona Kennedy of Cobh Tidy Towns and Cobh Animation team, Donna O’Driscoll from Cobh Tourist Office, Hendrick Verwey of Cobh Tourism and Councillor Kieran McCarthy accepted the award from Minister Michael Ring.

The Tourism Towns competition is a Fáilte Ireland initiative that aims to support towns which have achieved recognition in the Tidy Towns competition and which have an interest in developing their tourism potential, particularly targeting and catering for the needs of *overseas* visitors. It seeks to applaud those towns that have excelled in the Tidy Towns competition and that also offer a great experience for our visitors.

The Top 10 Highly Commended Tourism Towns are:

– Ardmore, Waterford [small town]
– Carrick on Shannon, Leitrim [small town]
– Glengarriff, Cork [small town]
– Kinsale, Cork [small town]
– Lismore, Waterford [small town]
– Portmagee, Kerry [small town]
– Killarney, Kerry [large town]
– Cobh, Cork [large town]
– Westport, Mayo [large town]
– Kilkenny, Kilkenny [large town]

Speaking about Cobh’s involvement, Hendrick Verwey, Chairman of Cobh Tourism said:

‘Being short-listed as one of the top ten Tourism Towns for the second year in a row was a wonderful achievement for Cobh.

Our Tourism Towns entry highlighted what a superb tourism destination cobh is. Located at the heart of the magnificent Cork Harbour, there is a huge array of things to see and do in Cobh and the passion of so many Cobh people for their town ensures a warm welcome for visitors. We continually strive to ensure that the visitor experience to Cobh is positive and enjoyable

Cobh wants to become the premier tourism destination on the south coast of Ireland and this competition is certainly one initiative that is pointing us in the right direction. The judging panel credited Cobh for the sense of vibrancy and local pride in its historical impact on the sea, and the legacy it left behind. They said it was obvious that there is a huge local effort to promote Cobh, and that local people are friendly and helpful when it comes to providing information to visitors.’