The Kinsale Chamber Of Tourism and Business created a discussion document and platform for all the key stakeholders in the town to engage and work together towards a short, medium and long term plan. The Chamber commenced a plan a number of years ago and held numerous brainstorming sessions with a cross section of representatives of each area of the community. Following these meetings, a survey was conducted by a third party to find out what the key priorities for both the local resident and the visitor were.

Some years later during Covid The Chamber, with the support of Failte Ireland, engaged an external public Realm expert company Scott Tallon Walker to prepare a discussion document called ‘Reimaging Kinsale’ to address the key concerns facing the town.

Kinsale is a town that has exhibited resilience in the face of adversity time and time again and proven to be a place that thrives on change and innovation. Even when we were met with the unprecedented circumstances of Covid19, the Kinsale Chamber did not hold back in fear but pushed on courageously, inviting in experts like Dr. Ian Norton, a global pandemic expert, with whose guidance the town embraced safety measures and was dubbed “Safest Town In Ireland”. This was one of many accolades the town was awarded amidst the 2020 global crisis, notably the town was also crowned ‘Ireland’s Most Enterprising Town 2020’ by Bank of Ireland. The people of Kinsale have consistently shown their impressive ability to evolve and build the town back from the ashes. Now in the face of an uncertain future and inevitable change, we have created the ‘Reimagining Kinsale’ document to inform and instruct how the town transforms itself in the wake of the Covid19 crisis.

Scott Tallon Walker were commissioned by us in November 2020 to produce this briefing document on Kinsale Town – constraints, assets, ideas and opportunities – to present the case to Cork County Council, Failte Ireland, the OPW, local groups and stakeholders, for short medium and long term engagement and investment in the town. It is intended that this briefing document will inform and inspire a more detailed study and agreed action plans.

The primary objectives of Kinsale Chamber of Tourism are for Kinsale to; 

• Become a best-in-class example, the go-to template & national/international benchmark in how an heritage tourism town can be sensitively and creatively updated for modern times using best urban design, place-making & conservation practices.
• Accommodate sustainable tourism growth.
• Utilize all of Kinsale’s historic assets effectively.
• Reach its full potential as an attractive place for both the visitor and the resident to enjoy.

The document details studies that have already been completed that give a good indication of important steps forward, goes into huge depth about the areas of concern for the future of the town’s tourism trade, outlines trends in tourism and areas of potential growth for the town and shows us how to measure progress. Acknowledging that the “culturally curious” are a large bracket of their tourism footfall in Kinsale, the document explores how the town can promote their rich offering of historic attractions. They also reiterate the importance of advertising the town as a water-based activities hub, investigate the ways the town’s traffic infrastructure can be improved and the positive impact doing so will have on tourism, suggest the development of new attractions, like a Cork – Kinsale Greenway, and useful amenities for locals.

The document outlines a clear strategy on how to prioritise and conceptualise future changes to the town. This strategy leads with a ‘Town Centre First’ policy based on the ‘Town Centre First’ policy approach, founded on the Town Centre Health Check research, the main objective of this policy is to ensure that our cities and towns become vibrant places for living and working in by removing the blight of underused and vacant urban building stock. 

We hope that this discussion and the ideas presented in the document will lead to further engagement and support from the County Council, Failte Ireland, the OPW, political representatives and organisations, all of whom are hugely supportive and engaged in Kinsale. 

Read the full Reimagining Kinsale PDF below.