New five-year strategy aims to extend tourist season in Mayo

A new five-year tourism strategy currently being prepared for Mayo will focus on expanding the reach of local attractions, harmonising stakeholder engagement across the county and extending the tourism industry beyond the traditional high season summer months.

In a presentation to a Tourism SPC meeting, Head of Tourism with Mayo County Council, Michael McDermott, said the strategy is designed to grow tourism in the county and enhance the visitor experience.

“We have procured consultants to assess the current state of tourism in Mayo, which has a lot to offer with many unique attractions and much more added to the offering over the last few years. A lot of our tourism occurs in the summer months and we want to extend this into the autumn and have created an action list to be deliverable over the next five years,” explained Mr McDermott.

“A lot of stakeholders are involved in tourism as well as private businesses and we want to gather all of this under the one umbrella and have a group to manage the sector, as part of a stakeholder engagement programme, to ensure we are all working together and not duplicating the offering.” 

With a focus on promoting seasonal balance and regional spread, the strategy will also look at new ways to promote tourism, recognising that social media is now the main tool to reach large numbers of people across the country and internationally, while the geographical remit will include not just established tourism trails but also inland Mayo and north and south of the county, in order to provide different experiences and encourage “slow tourism” where people enjoy longer stays.

“We are looking at key themes and priority areas with a view to give people a reason to come and stay here longer. We already work very well with Failte Ireland, which is one of the main funding authorities for capital projects and the consultants are assessing why people are coming into Mayo and what they are doing here,” continued McDermott.

The consultants are being guided by a number of identified key performance indicators with assessments currently being carried out on the types of accommodation available in Mayo, iconic heritage sites, landscape destinations, island tourism, visitor attractions, walking and cycling trails, blue flag and green coast beaches, food, drink and craft producers, fishing, golf, equestrian, sports and adventure sports, arts, culture and events, as well as a study on how to promote key towns.

“For example, in Castlebar, it is fabulous to have Lough Lannagh and the Leisure Centre and lake all in the one place, so we are looking at promoting Castlebar as a sports hub, while at Carne Golf Club in Belmullet they are hoping to attract a significant tournament there. In Westport last year, two main conferences were held that brought people from all over the world to the county, in relation to the IAAT (Ireland Association for Adventure Tourism) conference and the Dark Skies Conference. These are unique and we need to make more of this offering.” 

He added: “Walking and hiking is very big in Mayo, and we are really looking forward to the completion of the new Ceide walk which will be a superb 15km clifftop walk. We can also build on spirituality tourism which brings pilgrims to visit, with so many religious sites from Croagh Patrick to Knock Shrine on offer.” 

In terms of statistics, the Tourism Head said over €360 million was generated through tourism in Mayo in 2025, working out at €2,600 per capita, with the county offering a 9,500 total bed capacity, adding: “In terms of accommodation, Airbnb is very important to us here in Mayo.” 

In order to capitalise on the potential of social media, Michael McDermott said the council is looking at “using an influencer and developing our own social media pages”. 

Another key action will be working with Knock Airport to build on travel routes in and out of Mayo; also the plan is to get involved in more events, given that attending the hugely popular Milwaukee Festival in the USA proved very successful as a promotion event for the council last year.

In terms of what people are coming to see in Mayo, he said significant numbers come to visit Westport House, “which is going to be a bigger draw as a theme park in the future” and showcased a list of top Mayo attractions with visitor numbers in 2025 as follows: Westport House, 178,8210; Foxford Woollen Mills, 137,000; National Museum of Ireland, 79,519; Knock Museum, 33,807; Jackie Clarke Collection, 32,658; Ceide Fields, 30,071; Ballycroy Visitor Centre, 29,000; Achill Experience, 25,000; Ballintubber Abbey, 17,250; Old Irish Goat Centre, 9,751; Solas/Ionad Deirbhle, 8,967. He also noted a visitor survey attracted over 900 views and 340 replies.

The new tourism strategy is due to be published in September 2026.