Attraction of scale in the pipeline for Waterford's North Quays

What was described as 'an attraction of scale' was discussed at this month's plenary meeting of Waterford City & County Council.

The attraction in question would be located in Waterford City, on the north side of the river Suir and would be integral to Fáilte Ireland's overall tourism strategy for the county.

The tourism body indicated earlier this year that 'a visitor attraction of scale' would potentially become a transformative project for tourism not just in Waterford but the entire region.

At this month's plenary meeting of the local authority, CE Sean McKeown, said the project was progressing through the early stages.

“That's a priority project in our destination experience development plan," said Mr McKeown.

However, he also commented: "We don't know what that is going to look like or what it's going to be."

Mr McKeown said the local authority had entered a process with Fáilte Ireland through which a strategic assessment report would be carried out to ascertain where would be the best location for such an attraction.

The members were told that a likely site had already been identified but any major decisions wouldn't happen until formal assessment had taken place.

“We believe we've settled on a site but we need to verify that in terms of a strategic assessment report," said Mr McKeown.

He said that was particularly the case with regard to the level of funding Failte Ireland had in mind and while the actual figure wasn't revealed the members were told that it would be a multi-million euro project.

It's expected the strategic assessment report will be completed towards the end of this year, or early next year, and funding for that is being provided by Fáilte Ireland.

Following completion of the report a call will be made for proposals to be submitted to ascertain what the 'attraction of scale' should be.

“Based on the submissions we get we'll then select one or two that we'll progress to the next stage which will be detailed design, detailed costing, detailed business case and hopefully we'll have a good tranche of projects to choose from," he said.

The members were told the attraction would be viewed as a landmark one with the capability of transforming Waterford’s tourism offering and elevating the region’s international profile.