City of Culture brought benefits
to Cork
Cork City Council reaped huge economic benefit for its investment in
the city’s hosting of European Capital of Culture in 2005 with increased
tourist revenues of £60million.
This is according to Cork city manager Joe Gavin who said the increase
in revenue stemmed from a 36 per cent increase in visitor numbers to Cork
in 2005 over similar figures for 2003.
The comparable national figures showed just a seven per cent increase
over the same period.
Mr Gavin said: “We saw increase in tourism revenues of €90
million (£60m) in 2005 which given that Cork City Council and Cork
2005 invested some €13million (£8.8million) in the project
is a good return in anyone’s language.”
A report on the cultural benefits of Cork 2005 found that the designation
was a boost for the city’s cultural sectors in several ways although
it did recognise that there were areas where the designation could have
been more fully exploited.
According to authors Dr Bernadette Quinn and Elaine O’Halloran of
Dublin institute of Technology, 33 cultural organisations experienced
an increase in audience numbers compared to previous years.
The report also found most cultural groups had forged new links and improved
their confidence in their abilities, while many said if they had funding
available, they would make their Cork 2005 projects a regular feature.
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