Plans are moving forward for what has been described as an “attraction of scale” on the north side of the river in Waterford City, a project central to Fáilte Ireland’s five-year tourism strategy for the county.

In its report earlier this year, Fáilte Ireland stressed the importance of creating “a visitor attraction of scale for the north side of the river and within or in the vicinity of the North Quays of Waterford City to become a transformational project for tourism across the South East Region.”

Fáilte Ireland warned that “Waterford City lacks a ‘hero’ visitor attraction with the capacity to transform the region’s positioning within the international market place.” It argued that “the development of an attraction linked to the north side of the river and within or in the vicinity of the North Quays offers an iconic setting with the capacity to significantly alter visitor flows into the city and region. The wider region requires an attraction of scale that has strong appeal to the international market.”

At this month’s plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council, CEO Sean McKeown confirmed that the project is now progressing through key early stages.

“In relation to the attraction of scale – that’s a priority project in our destination experience development plan and we don’t know what that is going to look like or what it’s going to be. There were previous thoughts as to what it might be but the process we’ve now entered into with Fáilte Ireland is to carry out, in the first instance, a strategic assessment report of where is the best place in the city to locate it.”

He noted that a likely site has already been identified, but it must be formally assessed before any decisions are taken:

“We believe we’ve settled on a site but we need to verify that in terms of a strategic assessment report and especially given the level of funding that Fáilte Ireland have in mind and it’s not that it’s ring-fenced but it’s certainly going to be a multi-million euro project.”

The strategic assessment report, funded by Fáilte Ireland, is being carried out by consultants and is due to be completed late this year or in early 2026.

“So the first step after the strategic assessment report will be completed, which would be towards the end of this year or early next year, Fáilte are funding that and they’ve appointed consultants to undertake it. So worst case scenario, early next year that report will be finished. We then enter into the next phase which is to have a call for proposals, just broad outline proposals, as to what the attraction of scale should be.”

Only the strongest concepts will go forward for detailed development:

“Based on the submissions we get we’ll then select one or two that we’ll progress to the next stage which will be detailed design, detailed costing, detailed business case and hopefully we’ll have a good tranche of projects to choose from.”

The attraction is envisioned as a landmark capable of transforming Waterford’s tourism offering and elevating the region’s international profile — a single, defining development intended to change how visitors experience the city and county.

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