Cathair Na Mart: Áit a nAiríonn Cuairteoirí sa mBaile 

This new book is a publication by Westport Tourism Organisation (WTO) of its latest Visitor and Westport Host Providers’ Survey. The survey finds over 98% of respondents would recommend Westport to a friend. The survey report – the fifth in a series for WTO since 1987, authored by eminent sociologist and Westport Jesuit priest, Fr Micheal MacGréil, involved an extensive level of visitor surveying of almost 250 tourists carried out by the WTO committee over the months of August, September and October 2019, in addition to questionnaire filling by almost 180 Westport service providers on a wide range of Westport tourism issues  – the data from which was then compiled, analysed and made sense of by the author in this comprehensive report.

Designed to provide guidance on tourism infrastructure requirements in Westport, the report is backed up by almost 40 tables containing detailed data on questionnaire findings. These findings are then explored over seven chapters that look at The Current Tourist Situation in Westport, Tourism Development and Changes in Western Ireland in recent years, What Westport Has to Offer and Special Westport Tourism Features and opens with three essays looking at the history, architecture and economy of Westport. Following on from the analysis, Fr Mac Greil lists a total of 21 recommendations  ‘in response to the needs and opinions expressed in the findings’. 

Finally, it is the author’s wish that the research is studied widely in the community – including among senior-cycle second-level students, local leaders and service providers – in order to ‘elicit cross-community cooperation in the ongoing challenge of maintaining Westport as a quality destination for visitors and tourists’.