Читать книгу The Wild Atlantic Way and Western Ireland. 6 cycle tours along Ireland's west coast онлайн

17 страница из 46

Ireland was by then dubbed the ‘Celtic Tiger’ as one of the few European economies to match the growth in the Asian Tiger economies at the time. Companies such as Microsoft and Facebook had chosen Ireland as a European base. Land prices had ballooned and new housing estates littered the Irish landscape. But the good times ended abruptly with the ‘credit crunch’ of 2008. A calamitous downturn followed and, as a Eurozone economy, Ireland suffered the indignity of intervention from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

By the early part of the second decade of the century Ireland’s economy returned to growth. Dublin booms again although the growth is less visible in the west of the island. Tourism, for a long time a reliable contributor to the Irish economy, is stirring after suffering (at least by comparison with other sectors) during the Tiger period. Luring visitors away from Dublin and traditional hotspots such as Killarney is a policy goal: projects such as the Wild Atlantic Way are seeing significant investment and improvement in accommodation, places to eat and visitor facilities, some of which seemed destined to moulder away during the boom years.