All’s quiet on the western front
It should be the busiest month of the year along the shores of Lough Corrib – but even this week’s relaxation of restrictions for anglers won’t save this tourism season in the west.
At the same time, half of the county’s rural pubs in particular are wondering if they’ll ever get to open their doors again.
And with a new survey revealing that one in ten Galway jobs is under threat as a result of the direct impact of COVID-19 on tourism, the economic impact of the pandemic will cut deep into the fabric of the west.
With the mayfly up over recent days, the streets of Oughterard should be jammed with anglers.
But with fishing only permitted with 5km of home, that rules out any possibility of visitors who – even in the absence of hotels – might have rented houses and spent in local shops.
Meanwhile the Galway man who heads up the representative body of the country’s publicans fears that many of Galway’s 330 bars will never reopen due to the difficulties in ensuring social distancing while the virus is still circulating.
Padraig McGann, the national president of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, is unsure whether it will make financial sense for his own family pub in Monivea to begin trading again.
All of this comes as a new report by EY Ireland calculated that ten per cent of Galway jobs directly depended on the tourism and hospitality sector.
The report suggests that the future will still be bleak, because US visitors – 25 per cent of all tourists to Ireland – are likely to remain dramatically low after lockdown is eased.
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