Limerick Street Ambassador Programme Huge Success Three Years in a Row Posted on September 1st, 2008
Limerick’s pioneering Street Ambassadors helped more than 15,000 visitors to the Riverside City this Summer.
The roving tourist guides encountered sightseers from more countries than ever before and visitors from as far away as Brazil, New Zealand and Japan enjoyed a trip to Limerick.
The majority of tourists came from the USA and France with a sizeable number from Spain, the UK and Germany.
Throughout the last 12 weeks, the Street Ambassadors also helped almost 2,000 Irish visitors and hundreds of local people in Limerick.
“We were delighted with the response we got from tourists this year, despite the weather!” said Jean Ryan, Street Ambassadors Team Leader. “They really appreciated having a friendly face tell them which were the best places to visit, eat and shop. We also supplied all the Limerick hotels every week with a full events guide of what was going on in the city. And local people now see us as a friendly face who can offer help,” she said.
Jean Ryan said that the tourists she spoke to would like to have spent more time in the city.
“A lot of visitors, especially those who were on bus tours felt that they didn’t have enough time to appreciate what Limerick has to offer. They said they would definitely come back again,” she said.
Dressed in Munster red, the Street Ambassadors are a familiar and welcome sight on the streets of Limerick during the summer season. They have helped more than 40,000 visitors to the city since their inception three years ago and the concept has since been copied in Dublin. They have also been keeping an environmental watch, reporting litter offences, graffiti and infrastructural defects to Limerick City Council.
The Limerick Co-ordination Office spearheads the scheme which was funded by Shannon Development and the private sector this year.
“Limerick has a very good reputation amongst visitors as a friendly and accessible place and our street ambassadors enhance and reflect that,” said Eoghan Prendergast, Shannon Development’s Regional Manager for Limerick city. “Their presence makes a visit here stand out and tourists get help and information from those who love Limerick and have pride in the city.”
Limerick Co-ordination Office chairperson, Kay McGuinness, was delighted with the feedback from visitors and hoped the private sector would now come on board to fund the 2009 scheme.
“Local businesses are very supportive of the initiative and it would be fantastic to have our popular Street Ambassadors in the city for big Munster rugby weekends and around the Christmas season,” she said. “But to do that, we need private investment and we’re hopeful that the business community realises what an asset the Street Ambassadors are to our city.”
The 12 street ambassadors included Polish newspaper correspondent Magda Sudol, who enjoyed her second successive year as an ambassador for Limerick.
“I think visitors appreciated hearing about Limerick from someone who has experienced the city as a foreigner and people from Eastern Europe are especially happy to have someone speak to them in their own language,” she said.
The 12 Limerick Street Ambassadors ranged in age from 18-65.
VISITORS ENCOUNTERED IN 2008
June 23-August 31
Foreign: 13,224
Irish: 1,780
Total:15,004
Countries of origin: 68
