Dublin could offer a free public transport card to tourists
Dublin tourists could enjoy free public transport across the capital.
Dublin City Council are investigating the feasibility of offering visitors a tree tourist travel card . Speaking at last week’s Economic Development and Enterprise SPC, Executive Manager Mary Mac Sweeney provided an update on the status of several proposals aimed at encouraging domestic and international visitors to explore all the city has to offer.
Although the council didn’t identify other cities offering a free tourist travel card, it wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented as Luxembourg offers entirely fare free transport to both locals and tourists. Ms Mac Sweeney stated they will need to conduct a full feasibility study to determine the type of funding requirements needed to support a free travel initiative.
As a project that would need to be led primarily through a tourism organisation or transport provider, Ms Mac Sweeney said the council are happy to progress further work on the suggestion. She said they are also looking into providing a cultural card that would raise awareness of all the cultural offers available across the city.
Ms Mac Sweeney said this cultural card would initially be aimed at residents and domestic visitors before expanding to international guests. She explained that other cities have similar offerings that are linked to people’s library cards.
Free public transport for tourists had already been discussed at the previous Economic Development and Enterprise SPC held last February, where it was suggested that the introduction of a tourist tax could be used as a funding stream. Green Party Councillor Ray Cunningham suggested the introduction of a Leap Card-style free travel pass that would encourage tourists to visit locations beyond the city centre.
While an integrated ticketing system for public transport to replace Leap Cards is already being worked on, Ms Mac Sweeney stated if they were to waive transport costs for tourists they would need to be sure there is an income stream to support it. “Other cities have done it well for large scale events,” she said, but stressed they must get the "balance between locals and visitors right” and it’s important that locals don’t question why “that’s not available to us.”
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme