WHILE air travel may be returning, Fermanagh holiday makers have been urged to stay much closer to home this summer.
With pubs and restaurants reopened, and local hotels reopening soon, visitors will soon be returning to the county. However, with half the season already lost to the lockdown, locals are also being urged to get out and enjoy the food, fun and attractions Fermanagh has to offer.
“For a lot of tourism businesses, the next couple of months are going to make or break,” said Cllr Chris McCaffrey, urging people to stay closer to home for their holidays, not least for the sake of safety.
Cllr McCaffrey is a former member of staff at the Marble Arch Caves and has seen first hand the benefit visitors bring to the economies of small local villages such as Belcoo and Blacklion. He has also seen first hand the number of jobs these visitors help sustain.
“I would absolutely be encouraging people to holiday at home this year, not least because of the travel advice, but also in the spirit of supporting local business and helping local economies thrive again,” he said.
“You can feel it in public, people are keen to support local business because they understand it’s been a tough couple of months.
“We are going to have to show that same solidarity and coming together that we did throughout the whole crisis. It’s still not over, and now we’re into a different phase of it and the economic fall out.
“I’m obviously very biased, but in the good weather when it was sunny, you just had no desire to go anywhere else. We are so lucky here.”
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