Fingal has attracted its share of multinational companies, and long may that continue. We must also look to see how we can develop employment from the resources that we control and are at our disposal.
We see local businesses put added-value into our agricultural produce. This is welcomed and must be encouraged and promoted. We should seek out ways that we can further promote these developments and investments.
We also encourage entrepreneurs to develop commercial concepts and support them with business advice, mentoring and grants.
It seems to me that we have not maximised the tourist potential of Fingal. It has wonderful resources. A world-class coastline, unique history, good water for leisure activities, fabulous views, great walks, beautiful parks and recreational areas.
Currently, these unique assets are not packaged as a tourist product. There should be a master plan developed for each area and the opportunities within these areas. The Local Authority working with community groups and striving for all available funding from national, European and philanthropic sources can maximise the county’s tourism potential.
The county should work with land owners to secure leisure trail walks which interact with destination sites. The product “Fingal” should be promoted. The advent of social media has made marketing far less complex and expensive than in times past. Equally, by calling on each of us who have connections overseas to share promotional video clips via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can really help open the county to a ready made market.
In this way an additional aspect of our local economy can be developed and, if correctly promoted, it has the potential to create sustainable employment across many sectors of our community.
We are all aware of the numbers of tourists passing through Dublin Airport, a facility that is in Fingal. To capture even a small % of those passenger numbers for even one or two days would make a dramatic difference to the spend in our communities.
Fingal is a great place. Together we can spread the word.