An action committee has been formed in Killybegs to revitalise the town centre and promote activities and services to attract visitors to the town.
The group was formed at a crowded public meeting in the Bay View Hotel last night which was convened by Independent County Councillor, Niamh Kennedy.
Cllr Kennedy told the meeting that 200,000 visitors are passing through Killybegs each year to visit Sliabh Liag and Glencolmcille but very few of them are stopping even for a meal.
She stressed that Killybegs is a thriving town with about 110 companies working, about half of them involved in the services and retail sectors.
This is a great town”, she said. “It’s just that we are not experiencing the life of the town.” She said Killybegs was on the cusp of a wave as regards tourism and that County Donegal had been named “coolest place on the planet” by National Geographic.
She said that work is going ahead to develop a “blue-way”, a marine-based trail similar to the greenway developments on land. The “blue-way” would stretch along the whole coast of Donegal Bay and could be travelled by kayak, canoe or yacht.
Mr Sean Duffy, Head of Tourism at the LYIT College in Killybegs, said that work is progressing with the institutes of technology in Sligo, Galway and Mayo towards the formation of a technological university in the northwest and that would have huge implications for Killybegs.
“Many towns of this size would give their eye teeth to have a third level college”, he said, “and now we are looking at having a university campus here in five or ten years’ time.”
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