By Alan Healy,Irishexaminer.com
Copyright irishexaminer
Fáilte Ireland is now seeing consultants who can carry out feasibility studies for three shortlisted projects: a rejuvenated and reimagined English Market, a National Science Museum or an indoor wellness and waterpark destination.
This new attraction is designed to address the gap by increasing visitor numbers throughout the year. 17 initial concepts were developed and tested with consumers, with the list reduced to three by the project steering group. The selection was informed by international benchmarking with other successful attractions around the world. The projects were tested with consumers in domestic and international markets, and a pre-feasibility screening exercise was conducted.
The consultants awarded the contract will bring the shortlisted concepts to a greater level of detail and appraisal. A second stage may take place, which would require the development of preliminary business cases for one or more of the projects.
The successful tenderer will build on this work to assess the viability of these three concepts across a range of criteria, including technical feasibility, affordability, and the availability of appropriate sites.
Fáilte Ireland said it has not committed capital investment funding to any of the projects at this time, as the matter is in the early concept development stage.The English Market is viewed as one of Cork’s top visitor destinations. While the location is an active working market, the historic venue attracts large volumes of tourists each year. There have been proposals in the past to rejuvenate the venue, including linking it to the adjacent Unitarian Church.
A National Science Museum is also under consideration. Few cultural institutions currently exist outside the capital, which hosts the National Library, National Archives, the National Museum of Ireland and the National Gallery. Cork is already the location of one national institution, the Crawford Gallery, which is currently closed while it undergoes a €30m renovation.
In a statement to the Irish Examiner, Fáilte Ireland said the objective of the overall project is to identify the optimum concept for a new attraction of scale for Cork City. “If a decision is taken to proceed further with one or more of these visitor attraction concepts, a preliminary business case will be developed, in line with Government Infrastructure Guidelines, to seek approval to progress to the planning and design stage. If none of these current concepts meet the required criteria to progress to the next stage, Fáilte Ireland and Cork City Council will seek to identify further concepts for an Attraction of Scale in Cork.”
Cork City, Harbour and East Cork
