Galway losing 2,000 visitors a week due to bus parking

By Dara Bradley

Galway is losing as many as 2,000 tourist day-trippers a week during the peak season because of the lack of bus coach parking facilities near the city centre, businesses have warned.

The Galway City Business Association (GCBA) has complained that the tour coach parking facilities at the Cathedral are too far away from the city centre which is deterring tour operators from visiting the city.

Businesses fear that as many as 30 buses per week, with up to 80 passengers per coach, could be staying away from Galway because of the distance from the shops to the drop-off point at the Cathedral.

City Councillor Niall McNelis, who met with GCBA about this issue, has welcomed funding from Junior Transport Minister, Alan Kelly, to address the problem.

Minister Kelly announced that €25,000 will be spent by Galway City Council’s Galway Transportation Unit to carry out a study on possible locations for tour buses to park and drop-off closer to the city centre.

The money is to be used to determine whether it is possible to provide tour bus parking facilities at Merchant’s Road or Eyre Square, like during the Galway Races, or somewhere else closer to the city centre. “It is a very real issue,” said Cllr McNelis.

“The Galway City Business Association fears that we could be losing up to 2,000 visitors a week. That’s not an outrageous number when you consider there could be 80 people on some coaches. Galway Cathedral is too far away from the city centre for tour operators; it is too far away for people to walk, particularly tours with elderly American visitors or the elderly from the UK. These are the types of tourists we should be attracting but they won’t come unless we provide drop-off facilities nearer the city centre where the shops and restaurants are located,” said the Labour Party councillor.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel