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03 Oct 2025
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03 Oct 2025
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The main street of Littleton, near Thurles
Tipperary’s tourism promotion body has rebranded its logo as ‘Time for Tipperary’ emphasising the county’s leisure pursuits, said Tourism Development Officer Marie Phelan.
Tipperary earns €101m from tourism every year, with 500,000 visitors supporting more than 3,000 jobs. Travel company Condé Nast recently named Tipperary “as one of the biggest holiday destinations of 2022,” generating a flurry of interest, said Ms Phelan.
Councillor Michael Smith asked if the €86,000 provided by Fáilte Ireland for outdoor dining during covid could become available again. Ms Phelan said no more funding is being provided for outdoor dining grants.
Councillor Jim Ryan said Thurles had been awarded Europe’s Town of Sport in 2012 to great fanfare, but nothing has been to promote sports tourism to Thurles since then. “Nationally, sports tourism is worth €500m per year. I’m very disappointed that absolutely nothing has happened to take advantage of the fact that Thurles is the only town in Ireland that has been awarded Europe’s Town of Sport.
“There’s not even one single sign around Thurles saying we won that award. It’s not mentioned in any tourism leaflets or brochures. We got the award, and still, ten years later, absolutely nothing done.”
“We have Semple Stadium and Hayes Hotel where the GAA was founded and yet not one single sign around Thurles to mention that fact,” added Cllr Ryan.
Councillor Peggy Ryan said it would be a wonderful initiative to have GAA walking tours of Semple Stadium. Councillor Sean Ryan inquired about a bushcraft tourism centre for Littleton.
Ms Phelan said the issue of sports signage for Thurles is one for the Municipal District. The re-opening of a GAA museum is being promoted heavily through Tipperary Tourism. They are working to develop a GAA walking tour around the town centre of Thurles. “We're looking at how we can support that. It would probably be through a LEADER funding application.”
Meanwhile, there have been ongoing talks with Bord Na Móna concerning identifying a site for a bushcraft survival and activity centre in Littleton.
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