Castlebar Tourist Office - what is happening?

Coillte_Bhoy · 11-04-2018 1:44pm #1

I was in Castlebar today and needed to go into Tourist Office on Linenhall St only to find that is closed and in complete darkness.
I was informed that it has been closed since mid February and no sign of it opening up in the near future. Anyone know what the story is? Very strange that we have no such office in the county town.

irishgeo · 11-04-2018 6:02pm

It's not summer season probably

Coillte_Bhoy · 12-04-2018 5:03am

irishgeo wrote: »

It's not summer season probably

True but afaik it was open over the winter months until it shut in February

mayfire · 12-04-2018 10:20pm

It used to be run by the Chamber of Commerce but they closed down too. For a town of its size, really bad there is no tourist office and have a Chamber that allowed itself to implode?

oscarBravo · 12-04-2018 10:34pm

mayfire wrote: »

It used to be run by the Chamber of Commerce but they closed down too. For a town of its size, really bad there is no tourist office and have a Chamber that allowed itself to implode?

Castlebar Chamber is quite active, to judge by the emails I periodically get from them and the events I've attended.

Westernyelp · 13-04-2018 12:24am

mayfire wrote:

It used to be run by the Chamber of Commerce but they closed down too. For a town of its size, really bad there is no tourist office and have a Chamber that allowed itself to implode?

Where you getting this nonsense?

Lissavane · 13-04-2018 10:14pm

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

I was in Castlebar today and needed to go into Tourist Office on Linenhall St only to find that is closed and in complete darkness.
I was informed that it has been closed since mid February and no sign of it opening up in the near future. Anyone know what the story is? Very strange that we have no such office in the county town.

Discover Ireland does not list any Tourist Office for Castlebar. https://www.discoverireland.ie/Tourist-Item-Pages/Tourist-Information-Offices

Who would you suggest to fund such an office?

Coillte_Bhoy · 14-04-2018 10:28am

Lissavane wrote: »

Discover Ireland does not list any Tourist Office for Castlebar. https://www.discoverireland.ie/Tourist-Item-Pages/Tourist-Information-Offices

Who would you suggest to fund such an office?

Well i would have thought it would be publicly funded though it seems it was the chamber that funded it. btw i did a bit of digging and i find it odd that Castlebar Chamber of Commerce is not listed with the overall body chambers.ie . Can anyone explain why this might be?

Lissavane · 14-04-2018 3:07pm

Coillte_Bhoy wrote: »

Well i would have thought it would be publicly funded though it seems it was the chamber that funded it. btw i did a bit of digging and i find it odd that Castlebar Chamber of Commerce is not listed with the overall body chambers.ie . Can anyone explain why this might be?

Interesting. It looks as if many, possibly most, Chambers of Commerce throughout the country are not registered with Chambers Ireland. Both counties Kerry and Galway have only one listed - Tralee and Galway City. There are many more Chambers in these counties.

http://www.chambers.ie/about/contact/find-your-local-chamber/

PARlance · 15-04-2018 7:27pm

Lissavane wrote: »

Interesting. It looks as if many, possibly most, Chambers of Commerce throughout the country are not registered with Chambers Ireland. Both counties Kerry and Galway have only one listed - Tralee and Galway City. There are many more Chambers in these counties.

http://www.chambers.ie/about/contact/find-your-local-chamber/

I'm not 100% but I think each Chamber needs to pay to be a member of Chambers Ireland, if they don't, they're not listed.

For a group of business people, you would imagine that a half decent website would be a fairly easy task. The last news items on its site are from 2005.