Long before the establishment of the Wild Atlantic Way in 2014, tourism honeypots such as Westport and Kinsale were developing their unique brands as must-visit destinations, and not only for the summer season. Obviously their resplendent land and seascapes are elemental to their success, as is Westport’s prettiness, with its planned streets and tree-lined mall along the canalised river, and the contrasting quirkiness and colourscapes of Kinsale’s higgledy-piggledy streets and dramatic history. However, keeping the shutters up and the lights on over the low season for tourism providers is a more complex and nuanced dance, and that is without even mentioning staff shortages through emigration and the potential fallout from Donald Trump’s tariffs. [ Westport produces the world’s entire supply of Botox, but now Trump wants to bring it back to the USOpens in new window ] Hotelier Darren Madden explains: “Once the high season is over, active age groups arrive on the train from Sundays to Thursdays throughout the winter and absolutely provide the backbone of business for the larger hotels. These hotels offer a great schedule of activities from bridge and boules, bingo and set-dancing.” While Madden says this is certainly essential business, the profile of customers at the smaller Clew Bay Hotel, which he runs with his wife, Maria Ruddy, is somewhat different. READ MORE The three-star Clew Bay was first opened as a chip shop by Ruddy’s parents in 1959 and is one of 10 family-run hotels in the town. “We’re a 50-bedroom hotel and in February my customers will be a mixture of bus tours and Irish people, often from the west, or coming on the train or through Knock airport for golf and other leisure activities,” he says. Madden says his winter business has not reflected a recent CSO report showing a 30 per cent decline in visitors to the country. “I’ve seen those figures and I’m curious about them because our figures don’t show that trend. But I preface that with the fact that our first quarter was pretty poor last year. I’d say our price-point pitch was wrong, so earlier this year we offered a deal of two nights B&B for €99 per person sharing plus one evening meal and we are seeing the dividends of that now,” he says. “You are not making much money, just driving turnover, trying to retain staff and pay them.” Off-season hotel deals certainly help the potpourri of independent businesses that add to the appeal of Westport. Kerryman Aidan Healy moved from Dublin with his husband, a Westport native, in 2019, and opened Aodha, which sells Irishmade designs and crafts. The fact that the town-centre shop was already an established craft and design business – Reilly and Turpin – for 34 years was a key advantage, he says. “I get a lot of customers from other towns in Mayo and many of them stay for the weekends because there are really good deals over the winter,” says Healy. Even though the town quietens down until St Patrick’s Day, Healy wouldn’t consider closing, because local trade is important. “There are days when Americans and Europeans visit in small groups and spend more money than the bigger bus tours during the summer, who might come from Ashford Castle and only stay for a short time.” Down at Westport Quay, Dublin-born accountant Bríd Conroy and her Londoner husband Neil Paul, who worked on the Harry Potter movies, have run Tertulia bookshop since 2019. Having lived in London for many years, they were drawn to the appeal of rural Ireland and a sense of community and they run events for locals and visitors, with book clubs for history and philosophy enthusiasts as well as general readers. “We open all year round and to be sustainable need to be continuously innovative. Part of what Westport has to offer is that we are a vibrant community with a big accommodation portfolio and excellent value during the winter,” says Conroy. She says that since they have opened, the Quay itself has grown and developed as a year-round destination with lots of tourism businesses and marine activities, as well as the significant upgrading of Westport House’s leisure activities. “We have a level of overheads which must be paid for before we can take a wage for ourselves. We are not profit driven and take many decisions based on whether it meets our mission of making a positive contribution to the way the world thinks,” Conroy explains. Their new initiative with a Spanish and Brooklyn bookshop is called The Global Book Crawl, which launches in 16 countries on April 21st. Readers are invited to participate in a bookshop crawl in their local areas, collecting stamps on a “passport” at each shop. Down the coast in Kinsale, the owners of An Bookstór, Stuart Gallagher and Bernadette Doyle, are pleased theirs is among 23 independent Irish bookshops that have joined the Global Crawl. The couple has been running the shop since 2011 after their son had a summer job there. They purchased the building in 2014. [ How Irish booksellers feel about the arrival of Amazon.ie: ‘It’s a very real danger to the industry’Opens in new window ] “It makes a big difference to us and businesses in the town if you actually own your premises because it means when times are bad you can cope with the challenges,” Gallagher says. The local clientele is very important at An Bookstór, with Doyle confirming they run “a book club through the local Men’s Shed and a number of competitions for schoolchildren”. “The season is getting longer and we’ve been swamped by Americans for the last two years and we more than double our turnover during the summer. Many of them do the historic tour of the town with Barry Moloney, who sells his tour book here at the shop, ensuring more custom,” he says. Gallagher notes there is “a big nostalgic pushback towards physical books, especially for American tourists, because many of the independent shops are gone in the States”. The multicoloured craft and design shop Stone Mad sits across from An Bookstór, where the equally colourful Seattle-born Jill Brennan has run her iconic shop for 26 years. She has travelled the world, and her shop has become a key contributor to the tourism town’s economy, both in summer and winter. Unlike in Westport, about 90 per cent of Kinsale’s restaurants and 60 per cent of craft shops close over much of the low season, but Brennan is committed to staying open. Stone Mad, inspired by the Seamus Murphy book, is truly an Aladdin’s cave of costume jewellery, boho clothing, handmade leather accessories, cushion covers and ornaments. She says the development of a local clientele once again has been key to the viability of this shop over the winter. [ Seamus ‘Stone Mad’ Murphy: A comprehensively, combatively modern Irish artistOpens in new window ] “My jewellery is very affordable [from €28] and has become popular with younger girls going to their ‘proms’. A lot of older Americans are good customers too during the low season. When they come in during the summer from cruise ships, they don’t have time to spend money and seem more driven by the Irish fantasy hoping that Queen Maeve made some of my jewellery,” she says with a laugh. Down at Kinsale’s marina, the flotillas of yachts and speed boats are still at anchor awaiting the clemency of summer. The lobby of Acton’s Hotel, however, is busy with the arrival of a busload of American tourists. Vanessa Collins, the sales and marketing manager, explains: “From January to April we get a lot of corporate stays, with quite a bit of business from nearby American pharma group Eli Lilly. “We had a Japanese group staying with us a couple of weeks ago and they were here for five nights getting taxis to Lilly each day. Regarding our leisure visitors, we’ve had to do a lot of online offers, with 20 per cent off for a direct advanced purchase rate. This winter we got a lot of domestic, Northern Irish and UK business,” Collins explains. When occupancy was low they added a complimentary bottle of wine for those who stayed at the hotel for dinner. “Because a lot of restaurants are closed, we’d be trying to keep them,” she says. The B&B rate for that deal was €150 for two people sharing a Classic Room. Thanks to a spell of good weather in April, Westport and Kinsale have already been buzzing with the early arrival of visitors this year. Festivals and events drive a lot of business too. People flocked to Kinsale Street Feast on April 12th for a showcase of the town’s multicultural gourmet credentials, while the Westport Marathon on April 5th was further evidence of the Mayo town’s development as an open-air leisure destination.