6th July 2010 - Clóna Dairies and Fastnet Line Celebrate
Success of New Swansea-Cork Ferry
Management and staff at Clóna Dairies have congratulated Fastnet Line on their exceptional mid-season passenger figures.
Fastnet Line, the company that operates the Swansea-Cork Ferry, is reporting strong passenger uptake following the revival of the Swansea-Cork Ferry service nearly three months ago. Well over 35,000 people have already travelled on the service with more than 15,000 vehicles having already been carried.
The ferry route was reinstated in March after a four-year absence. The service, which was discontinued in 2006 resulted in a reported thirty per cent drop in tourist numbers visiting West Cork.
Having carried nearly three million passengers and 700,000 cars during the nine-year period that the original ferry had operated, Cork business people knew that it was vital that the service resumed in order to safeguard tourism jobs across County Cork. As a result, the ‘People’s Ferry’ campaign group was established.
Last year, Clóna Dairy Products approached the organisers of the grass roots ferry group with an offer of financial support. Clóna’s funding, along with that of other local businesses, has been instrumental in ensuring that the Swansea-Cork Ferry was relaunched.
Tony O’Driscoll, managing director of Clóna Dairy Products, believes that the Swansea-Cork ferry link is essential to a healthy tourism sector, particularly in West Cork:
“Clóna has strong West Cork connections so we were extremely keen to support the ‘People’s Ferry’ initiative. In fact, Clóna Dairy Products has its roots in Clonakilty where the Hurley family began supplying fresh milk to the local community in 1919. By the late 1980s, milk from Hurley’s farm had become known as Clóna Milk and the brand, Clóna Fresh Milk, was born. Today, the majority of our dairy farmers are still based in the West Cork area. We’re very much aware of the importance of tourism to the local economy there. We wanted to help give the sector a boost by offering our sponsorship.”
Martin Long, financial director at Clóna Dairy Products, echoed this sentiment by describing the ferry initiative as lifeline for the tourism industry.
“West Cork is hugely popular with visitors from the UK but without the ferry link to Swansea, tourism was clearly suffering. Instead of sitting back and letting the sector deteriorate, the business people in West Cork have taken the situation into their own hands by establishing The West Cork Tourism Cooperative – the coop that owns and operates the new ferry, the MV Julia. It really is a case of local people working together to overcome a difficulty that has threatened the livelihoods of those in the community. Management at Clóna are very proud to have helped to reinstate the much-needed ferry service. The MV Julia has only been up and running since March but the benefits are already clearly visible”, Martin explains
The volcanic ash cloud that caused widespread disruption at several airports across Ireland, the UK and elsewhere in Europe, has had a silver lining for Fastnet Line. During April and May, thousands of air passengers were forced to make their journeys by ferry.
“The ash cloud has reminded business people and holiday makers of the advantages of travelling by ferry”, CEO of Fastnet Line, Phil Jones explains. “We were able to provide a vital link between Ireland and the UK at a time when people had no other option. We are delighted that the Fastnet Line service was experienced by perhaps hundreds of people who would not otherwise have travelled with us. It has been a further reminder of the value of a sea link between two island nations and we have been very happy with the response of those who have travelled with us so far. We are extremely grateful to Clóna for their support and welcome the involvement of a local business, supplying quality food products for generations, which we believe complements the quality of service that we in Fastnet Line strive to provide.”
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