Guinness Storehouse sees 1.7 million visitors in 2017
The Guinness Storehouse saw a record 1.7 million visitors last year, making it the most popular fee-paying visitor attraction in Ireland.
Print12 July 2018
Breweries and distilleries are a staple of Irish tourism. Ireland now boasts 17 brewery and distillery tourist attractions, which hosted 2,590,215 visitors in 2017, up 6% from 2,437,206 in 2016.
Ireland’s whiskey distilleries alone hosted 814,000 guests last year. The most popular of these was the Jameson Distillery in Bowe Street, which hosted more than 350,000 people in 2017.
Facilitating the popularity is a growing interest in Irish gin, which is also having a knock-on effect on Irish tourism.
A number of distilleries like Rademon Estate Distillery (Down), Echlinville Distillery (Down), Connacht Distillery (Mayo) and Dingle Distillery (Kerry) include both gin and whiskey as part of their visitor experience.
However, as Irish breweries and distilleries continue to attract millions of visitors each year, some industry professionals have warned that growth may be curtailed by the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.
Under the bill, advertisements and signs for visitor centres with brand names will effectively be banned, making it challenging to reach potential visitors to these sites.
Patricia Callan, director of Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, has called for an exemption for tourist sites.
“These tourist attractions need to be able to reach potential visitors with advertisements and directional signage, which will become increasingly challenging under proposed new legislation” she said.
“We’d urge the Government to create an exemption for drinks industry tourist attractions in the Alcohol Bill.”
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