More than €73 million has been lost to the economy – equating to more than €50,000 a day – because of the continuing closure of the cliff walk between Bray and Greystones, Co Wicklow, economist Jim Power has said.
Mr Power, an economic adviser to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation and a financial commentator, estimated the loss to the economy included €21 million that would have gone to the Exchequer in taxes.
The 7km cliff walk, developed in the 1840s as an access route for workers building the railway line, was, until its closure in February 2021, one of the most popular walks on Ireland’s east coast. At its highest point it rises to about 100m above sea level.
However, following the collapse of a section of boulder clay on the Greystones side and a rockfall further towards Bray, the walk was closed on a temporary basis.
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Wicklow County Council put barriers at either end of the route and advertised an alternative walk, some of which was on the main Bray to Greystones road before climbing the head and emerging at a landmark cross overlooking Bray seafront.
However, as time passed and the cliff walk remained closed, local traders expressed concern at the lack of business.
“The closure hit us immediately. I would say we were first in the firing line, and then it hit everyone else,” said Nigel Spendlove, who runs a coffee shop at Greystones harbour.
Claire Cullen, who runs The Fat Fox cafe and cake shop on Trafalgar Road, Greystones, said the closure had cost her “500 customers a week. That is 2,000 customers a month – it is a lot for any business to take”..
Local group Friends of the Cliff Walk commissioned Mr Power to carry out an economic study of the economic cost of the closure.
As part of the overall figure of €73 million, Mr Power estimated losses to local shops, restaurants and coffee shops at €4 million, based on yearly spending by walkers of €3.5 million.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Power said he had relied on Fáilte Ireland reports on visitor spending, figures for the numbers of people previously walking the cliff walk and his own interviews with businesses in the area among other sources.
He said that according to Fáilte Ireland figures overseas visitors would typically spend €105 each a day, domestic visitors would be spending €92 daily and local walkers would spend about €10.
He said recent analysis showed 10 per cent of visitors on the walk were from overseas, 40 per cent would be domestic visitors and the rest locals.
Using official figures showing 350,000 visitors in the last year the walk was open, the annual spend was €18.4 million. With the walk now closed four years that loss amounted to €73 million overall, he said.
He said the impact on the economies of Bray and Greystones has been “very significant”.
“If we assume the average spend locally is €10 per visitor, the overall spend locally would be €3.5 million. This would support 77 jobs in tourism and hospitality in the local area. Assuming an average wage of €20,000, this would equate to a wage injection of €1.54 million into the local economy,” he said at the launch of his report on Tuesday in Greystones.
Wicklow County Council said it was in the process of appointing consultants to advise “short-term and long-term solutions to address the issues with sections of the walk that have already collapsed or are about to collapse”.
The council said it had “identified unsafe sections, reluctantly closed them, and signposted alternative routes around the collapsed sections of the cliff walk”.
It said it was also working to identify funding for the work.
