Wild Atlantic Way and Overtourism

Fáilte Ireland is  doing a substantial amount of work monitoring the environmental impacts on the Wild Atlantic Way and they are beginning to look at the economic impacts.

Fáilte Ireland  recognises that there are significant congestion problems – both existing and emerging – at certain points and destinations along the Wild Atlantic Way and they are planning to tackle these in a systematic way with the relevant Local Authorities over the coming years. In some cases the solutions will be simple and in others they will be more complex.

Fáilte Ireland is recognising is that they are not tackling these issues to satisfy some external sustainability agenda, but rather to ensure the durability of the Wild Atlantic Way itself and to maintain its own ‘production capability’.

They are presently compiling the monitoring reports for 2016. These are aimed at focusing both Failte Ireland and the Local Authorities on the impacts that are taking place on the ground and the risks of unmanaged tourism – ‘over-tourism. Fáilte Ireland is talking to the Local Authorities about how to manage and mitigate the impacts that are identified – and avoid them in the future. It is intended to put in place a concerted system across all the Local Authorities for managing the unintended consequences of tourism arising from the Wild Atlantic Way. The 2015 monitoring results are available on line and the methodology is evolving.