In May this year, Teeling Distillery in Dublin announced that it had hit a remarkable milestone – in the ten years since they had opened, they welcomed a total of one million visitors. Located in the Liberties area of Dublin city, the distillery had been smart about their tourism offering; the distillery had an exhibition space, cafe, and most importantly, a vibe. It was a nice place to visit and hang out, as well as a distillery. They were also fortunate in that they were in Ireland’s capital, and within walking distance of three other distilleries – the now defunct Dublin Liberties Distillery was just around the corner, while Alltech’s Pearse Lyons Distillery and Diageo’s Roe & Co. Distillery were a short walk away. If you were a whiskey lover, you could also take a stroll down to Bow Street, where the old Jameson distillery offered a range of experiences.
Whiskey tourism can be big business, but as with the category as a whole, a handful of large brands and their respective brand homes dominate. Bord Failte, the Irish tourism board, publishes visitor numbers to brand homes each year, the most recent data being from 2023.
In that year, the top spot for Irish whiskey tourism destinations was the Jameson brand home on Bow Street, which welcomed 318,099 visitors, making it the second most popular brand home in Ireland after the Guinness Storehouse which welcomed a whopping 1.4 million visitors. Next in the whiskey category is Teeling, which welcomed 127,571, then Midleton Distillery with 111,305, the highest for any whiskey attraction outside of Dublin. The next closest is Pat Rigney’s The Shed Distillery in Leitrim, with 50,000 visitors, Pearse Lyons Distillery with 35,176, Rose & Co with 33,500, Kilbeggan with 33,250, Powerscourt Distillery with 19,000, Tullamore DEW with 14,666, Dublin Liberties Distillery with 6,500, and Clonakilty Distillery with 6,018, (some way off the 40,000 visitors per annum promised when the distillery was being planned). Teeling shows that even newcomers can build remarkable numbers when it comes to visitors, but the other, lower figures show that nothing is guaranteed.
Whiskey tourism can also build brand awareness, as JJ Corry owner Louise McGuane notes: “For unknown brands it has to be about generating revenue first and foremost. It can certainly build brand awareness but you need to be in a high traffic tourism area for it to do that. You can’t build a destination right off the bat, that takes time. You can either be a tourism business or a whiskey business, I don’t think you can be both in the beginning, trying to run a bar or restaurant without an established route to market is nothing but a drain on resources and a distraction.”
But even if you had an all-singing, all dancing whiskey tourism offering of a brand home, tours, gift shop and cafe, there is also the question of access. Outside Ireland’s capital, tourism of any kind is more of a challenge, for both visitors and operators.
When McGuane started her business – a resurrection of a whiskey bonder brand from her area – she had the perfect location; her home in west Clare. She built her maturation warehouse on the site of her family farm, alongside her own renovated cottage, a contender for Ireland’s home of the year. As a venue to build the brand around, it worked on one level – high net worth visitors could fly in by helicopter and be wined, dined, and wowed, but this was never going to be a place for the bus tours.
“In the main I have tried to avoid tourism, as the farm facility is small and always quite busy. It was never a major part of our business plan, but eventually I realised there was an opportunity there, but one I wanted to control tightly.
“Tourism is very seasonal in Clare, so we open from March to October each year by appointment only. We only work with the local five star hotels and DMC’s who service high-end tourism clientele. This keeps the numbers down but the value up. We’ve managed to build great relationships now with that level of clientele and the sky is the limit in terms of what we can offer. The on-site visit is very tailored and a really unique experience beyond the usual tour of copper stills. We frequently get visits from guests on helicopters on their way to or from Adare or Ashford and that level of experience has to be top notch.
“More mass market tourism never interested me, because unless you are in an area with an existing tourism base, the amount of work involved in creating awareness for an attraction and the running costs of a large facility would detract from our main business which is selling whiskey. We have been hyper focused on building route to market first and foremost.”
With ten years of hard work behind her and a growing brand, an opportunity to develop a tourism offering in the actual home of the brand presented itself. After a planning application to create a production facility and tourism offering in Doolin was turned down, another far more fitting location became available. Bunratty Castle and Folk Park is one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. It is also where the original JJ Corry shop is located.
“I have had my eyes on it since the inception of the business and took a lot of inspiration from there. I worked behind the scenes for many years to see if there could be an opportunity and finally once new ownership took over I was able to prove my case. The park gets close to 400,000 paying visitors per annum. That is 400,000 people walking past the door of the JJ Corry shop.
“We have created a heritage driven experience that allows us to tell our story and lean into the history and heritage of whiskey bonding in the late 19th Century in an authentic way. It was a turnkey project. We had it up and running within two weeks and it has a huge amount of potential going forward. We are learning as we go and I am beginning to embrace tourism as part of our business model.”
The setting is an ideal one for any brand looking to appeal to the American tourist, as its mix of olde worlde charm and actual built heritage gives a sense of a place out of time.
“Bunratty is kind of a magical place. The 19th Century street really transports you to a particular moment in Irish History and culture and as it happens that moment is exactly when the original J.J. Corry was launched. I love leaning into the heritage of that time to draw inspiration and stories from the JJ Corry timeline. “
And aside from that charm, it also means McGuane’s home can be that again – just her home: “Bunratty works as a mass market offering because of the established footfall, brand awareness comes after that. Those who visit us on the farm become lifelong advocates for the brand due to the experience they receive. I’ve had to draw a line with people visiting my home as part of the experience most of the time, it can become disruptive.”
Ardara Distillery founder James Doherty faces different challenges. Also perched on the west coast, his distillery is located in a small village in Donegal on the north west coast. With his distillery operational a little over three years, his focus has been on making whiskey, not on hospitality. “Tourism plays an important part of the business from a “getting the word out there” but not really from a commercial perspective. We hesitate to call our tour a visitor experience as it is very much a tour of a working distillery followed by a tasting and a shop. Our space means we are limited to small groups (generally less than 15). We have done larger groups but it is difficult for us to accommodate that size of group and the tour loses the personal touch we like.”
Doherty also sees his distillery as part of the greater tourism offering in his area, and wants visitors to spent time in the village: “Our philosophy has been one of completing Ardara not competing with Ardara. Consequently we have no tea, coffee, café or indeed hospitality. The village is well equipped with three cafes, five pubs, three churches, and two hotels so we want people to spend an hour or so with us and then spend time with the weavers, spinners, craft shops and then on to the venues.
“Our belief is that while distilleries are intrinsically interesting, our process idiosyncrasies amps that up but you cannot overcome the seasonal nature of tourism in rural Donegal. The return on capital from the visitor centre is materially lower than whiskey production so it really is about creating awareness, generating advocacy and enhancing the area.
“Our whiskey style is inherently regional which plays well with the tourist who comes to Donegal; they tend to be more adventurous. Our season is from 17 March to the bank holiday weekend in October. A city centre distillery visitor centre is a different beast but once you are 30-40 minutes out of town the business opportunity is, for me, far from clear.”
But in a difficult time for whiskey producers – tariffs, rising costs of production, and a cost of living crisis in the US and Europe – tourism numbers are also down. Failte Ireland’s June report highlighted that Q1 2025 was relatively weak compared with 2024. This was partly due to Ireland’s winter air access being down -2% due to the Dublin airport cap; disruptive storms in January, and a comparative high in the same period in 2024. Also in June the Central Statistics Office reported that figures were continuing to decline, with a 10% drop in the number of foreign visitors coming to Ireland in May.
Doherty sees their small-scale tourism as being safe from any decline in numbers visiting the country as a whole: “We are still young and growing so our numbers in terms of visitors and spend is growing year on year and I think we will this year start to bump up against our capacity constraints. The tourist in Donegal is not as fickle as perhaps for the rest of Ireland so a combination of capacity (small) and regional location means that we are not seeing numbers softening.”
But the numbers nationally are – the Central Statistics Office revealed that tourism figures for June were down 2% on last year, while a Fáilte Ireland survey of tourism operators showed an overwhelming majority indicated that every major overseas market sector was down in terms of revenue compared to the previous 12 months; and 59pc of operators said revenue from North American visitors was down on 2024. Three distilleries which were built with prime tourism locations and offerings were Killarney Brewing and Distillery – just outside the tourism hotspot of Killarney and boasting a stunning location and popular restaurant; Waterford – just off the heart of Waterford city and with a modern distillery and historic brewery; and Dublin Liberties Distillery – just around the corner from Teelings. All are now closed. Another whiskey tourism offering, Powerscourt Distillery – located on the historic estate in Wicklow which welcomes thousands of visitors each year – is in receivership and being sold.
For Louise McGuane, things are tough, but she is positive: “I will be honest and tell you that it is extremely challenging on a personal and professional level, in that this seems to be a once in a generation industry-wide shift, and by industry I mean the entire drinks industry not just the Irish whiskey Industry.
“The timing of this shift is particularly cruel to the Irish whiskey industry as a whole, we’ve all only really had a ten year run in to rebuilding the category and diversity within it and we thought that Covid would be the worst thing we would face, but we were wrong. There is no doubt we are on a downswing and still on the way down, but the market will come right again and the challenge now is to prepare the business for that moment. That is what I am focusing on now, ensuring the longevity of the JJ Corry brand beyond this moment and adapting ourselves for the future.
“I am disappointed at the lack of stewardship being shown by some of the multinationals. A show of belief and commitment to the sector has proved lacking from some and we need long-term buy-in and belief for a long-term future once the downturn is over. The positives for me are that I’m feeling re-energised on a new mission; stay positive and stay in the game.”
For James Doherty, the smaller distilleries like his, are somewhat sheltered from the worst headwinds: “It feels there is a dark cloud over the industry at the moment. I didn’t subscribe to the hype pre and immediately after Covid but equally I don’t subscribe to all the darkness now. It is undoubtedly tough but if you have scale you are safe enough, and, if not, strong propositions – with strong sense of place, robust authentic origin stories and distinctive spirit styles – will be no doubt tight for capital and cash but should pull through.
“Ten years ago when capital was more readily available business models that were about rapid growth and building businesses that were scalable and valuable (almost fin tech like) targeting obvious opportunities are more questionable now; smaller less capital intensive (but scalable) feels like a more robust model in this climate. That’s certainly been my advice to anyone thinking about coming in now.
“We have cut our cost base substantially, focussed-in on fewer markets closer to home and undertaken some spirit wholesaling. We are still distilling as we believe in the long term opportunity of Donegal as ‘the Islay of Ireland’ and Ardara Single Malt at the core of that. We have a lot to be excited about really even in this climate – the Ardara Single Malt in all its uncompromising glory will be released shortly and the response to the whiskey has been strong.”
Alongside this, Doherty is the star of a documentary about his distillery project which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh: “We are fortunate that we commissioned a video of the distillery build for the investors, though I do ask myself does anyone really need a three-metre wide James Doherty on a screen in front of them.”
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