Tramore may be deprived of a major conference and all the revenue accruing, for want of a venue large enough to accommodate it.
It is Munster’s turn to host the AMAI (Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland) annual conference next year and Tramore would be considered an ideal location if it had a hotel which could cope with up to 500 delegates and members of their families.
However, members of the local Town Council, at whose meeting the issue was raised on Tuesday night, didn’t feel that any of the hotels in the resort were large enough. But they were prepared to be surprised and invited enquiries from any of them that thought they had the necessary facilities.
Cllr. Pat O’Callaghan, who regularly represents the Council at the conference, said it was a three-day, Thursday to Sunday September event and would be of huge benefit to Tramore if it could be staged there. Sligo is the location this year.
Applicant hotels have until June to submit a bid for the conference but Mayor Joe Conway said he didn’t think Tramore had any venue of sufficient size. That was regrettable because it would be a great way to showcase the resort, particularly at a time of year when the tourist season would be winding down, he said.
But Cllr. Lola O’Sullivan said that if any of the town’s hotels felt they could cope they should make contact with the Council with a view to making a pitch for the event. “Maybe one of them could manage it”, she said, sounding more hopeful than confident.
Cllr. Dan Cowman recalled that the last major conference in Tramore was back in the nineties. “It was a health conference and not as big as this one”, he said.
