A SPECTACULAR array of events lined up as part of the 2018 Christmas in Killarney festival, which ran from late November to early January, generated a staggering level of revenue for the town, it has been confirmed.
A full review conducted by Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce, which heard from the key players involved in the festive celebrations, received hugely positive feedback from on-the-ground local operators across a wide range of commercial interests.
“There were lots of good soundbites and stories to report which is why we thought we would take the opportunity to hear of the successes and how it was for everybody,” said Chamber President, Paul Sherry.
He said the gathering, held in the Killarney Avenue Hotel, explored the triumphs and scoped out new opportunities.
“We wanted to distinguish between hearsay and reality and we invited everybody along to tell us their Christmas stories to help us to plan for 2019,” he remarked.
The chamber chief said from as early as late November, it was becoming clear that a good strong performance for December was on the cards as the first Christmas in Killarney parade, on Saturday, November 25, was the best in many years.
“The word on the street was that the bars were busier, the restaurants were going well and the accommodation providers were flat out at the weekends. There were positive sounds emanating from retailers against a backdrop of neutral growth across the rest of the country,” he said.
Giving an example, Paul said in his own place of employment – Killarney Outlet Centre – there was a four per cent rise in visitors, to 140,222, in December than in the previous year.
“Retail sales were generally in line with this for the month of December but there were some exceptional increases reported, some as high as 12%. I am sure many retailers will agree that, in the last 10 years, anything that was preceded with a plus sign was very welcome news indeed,” he said.
Separately, in November, a Christmas Craft and Food Fair attracted 11,000 customers to the centre in one day alone.
Strategically placed counters for the Killarney municipal district revealed that the estimated footfall for the peak Christmas holiday period, from December 21 to January 6 showed a 20% increase on the same period the previous year.
“Just to show the influence of bad weather, when we looked at December 15 in isolation, which was a day of very heavy rain, the footfall fell from 26,000 in 2017 to 7,000 in 2018, a drop of 19,000,” Paul said.
Christmas in Killarney Festival Chairperson, Kate O’Leary, said the event, now in its 14th year, costs in the region of €50,000 to run and it has bounced back from financial stress two years ago with some new additions for 2018. But while the festival is now back in the black, she stressed that generating the finance required is “a constant uphill battle”.
“It is also time to forge ahead, really improve the offering and stay ahead of all of the towns that are trying to do what we do – but we know we can do it better,” Kate remarked.
She lauded the great voluntary effort that is made, with up to 100 people and 16 schools lending a hand in some capacity.
“Footfall on the streets was phenomenal each weekend and enquiries about parade times and routes from visitors was constant. What was particularly interesting is that retailers reported trade was, in many ways, better in the weeks after Christmas which is a testament to Killarney as a destination rather than pre-Christmas as an intense shopping period,” Kate added.
Analysis of the festival’s social media platform showed that 490,000 people viewed its Facebook posts and almost 50,000 on Twitter, the majority of whom were women.
“We definitely need to up our game significantly and that takes time and money. We have seen how lack of funding and support has been the death knoll of festivals in the past and we do not want to go back to this,” she warned.
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