Places with great potential but something went wrong

Having been in Arklow recently, it's got a great marine heritage a harbor a and a sandy beach surrounded by lovely countryside so should be hopping with tourists but it's not?

On Sunday two food trucks one doing food one dong coffee and a bit of music wedged into a tiny bit of ground near the harbor noting else except a stall dong a fundraiser for the RNLI, the car park for the beach is very poor, two rickety wood picnic table on a bit of hillock grass appear to be the only facilities contrast that to somewhere like Greystones or Dún Laoghaire always very busy lots of food truck, food places, pubs with outdoor seating, lots of day-trippers and tourists or even contrast it with Gorey which is thriving.

In the case of Arklow its must be something to do with the council.

So why do some places not do well despite having the natural resources to do so? any other examples

Loads of other examples tbf. Places like Tralee or Ballina (Mayo one) should be massive tourist draws but aren't. Both are surrounded by amazing scenery and actually have nice looking but currently semi-derelict town centres. No idea how you would "fix" either place tbh.

From a city point of view, my hometown of Limerick does very little for itself. Still runs a very busy road right through the centre of the city, meaning the city centre is a noisy and dirty place to visit, though there's some sort of upgrade going on there atm (I haven't been following the redevelopment too closely). Unlike Tralee or Ballina, there's plenty of employment in Limerick too, just that people choose to live in out-lyings areas and commute in to work.

One place I always thought "should" be a city is Athlone, only 1 hour from Dublin with a big hinterland but it seems to have some of the same issues as Limerick.