This week gave us a front row seat to a few very different kinds of tourism in Donegal, and it’s made me think a lot harder about what it actually takes for a visitor to become an economic asset instead of just a pass by. The Downings Festival felt like the clearest win for the local community. It was full of families, teenagers, and people from nearby towns who all showed up for the same event, and even though tourists were there too, the whole thing still felt like it was built for the people who actually live there. The Wild Atlantic Way was a totally different story, we passed rental cars, tour buses, and cyclists constantly, but a lot of those visitors seemed to be on their way somewhere else, stopping just long enough for a photo before moving on.
A picture of the Wild Atlantic Way.
Murder Hole Beach split the difference. People clearly went out their way to find it, mostly through word of mouth or social media rather than any formal promotion, but once we got there it was so worth seeing the views in general, even if the climb back up can be a bit of a struggle (sand + incline = not a good combination). That contrast is what makes me think the answer to whether tourism dollars stay local really depends on the format. A festival or a Main Street Business practically forces visitors to spend money in the community, since eating, shopping, or staying overnight all put cash directly into local hands. A scenic overlook on the other hand, can get thousands of visitors a year and still barely register economically if people just take a picture and leave. So no, attention and income aren’t automatically the same thing. Getting people to show up is only step one.
That’s exactly the question I think our team needs to sit with for Carrigart. It’s tempting to assume that more tourism is always good for the town centre, but after this week, I don’t think that’s true by default. Carrigart already has natural advantages, it sits along the Wild Atlantic Way and near attractions people are willing to seek out, but none of that guarantees visitors will actually stop in town rather than driving straight through to the next scenic point. If our recommendations only focus on getting more people into the area, we could end up increasing traffic without increasing revenue. I think the more useful goal is figuring out how to turn Carrigart from a stop along the way into an actual destination, even if it’s just for the afternoon. That probably means leaning into things visitors can’t get anywhere else such as local shops, community events, food, and the kind of storytelling that makes people want to stick around.
A picture of Murder Hole beach.