Ballyhoura Failte are currently boasting a tourism sector worth €60 million, which brings half a million visitors to the area each year. This is according to a Visitor Impact Study completed by Limerick Institute of Technology with Ballyhoura Failte, which was released this week.

Manager of Ballyhoura Failte, Fergal Somers said that this is very positive news for tourism in the Ballyhoura region and he added that it proves that the promotion of heritage, culture, festivals, activity and adventure are paying dividends.

Failte Ireland selected Ballyhoura Failte as an Adventure Ambassador for Ireland to represent the region and Ireland at a number of key tourism events.

New figures released also show that the adventure travel market has increased by 65% since 2009 and in order to build on this, Ballyhoura Failte has recently secured €500,000 in funding for community tourism initiatives, which will see considerable investment in the mountain bike trails.

These trails are now considered one of the finest networks in Europe and the planned investment will mean that the trails can develop into a world class mountain bike park, capable of hosting national, European and world championships. This could see the numbers using the trails double in the next three years, rising from 50,000 currently to 100,000.

This weekend, the Ballyhoura mountain bike trails will host the European leg of the Blue Grass World Enduro Tour, which will bring more than 350 cyclists to the local mountains.

It takes place on Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22 and would be a spectacular event to witness.

The trails will also play host to the National Marathon Championships on Sunday, September 29 with the current world marathon champion, Christoph Sauzer from Switzerland cycling the 100km of trails.

The world champion will also announce that Ballyhoura has won a bid to host the European Elite Marathon Championships in June 2014 – a cycling event of this calibre has never been held in Ireland before.

This will draw more than 1,500 visitors for about a week and is expected to generate more than €1 million for the local economy.

In October of next year, Ireland will host the Adventure World Summit bringing more than 700 of the top adventure travel agents and journalists to Ireland for a week and in Ballyhoura, they will be able to sample more than 30 outdoor activities.