Cruises on the Shannon are popular but greater number of visitors are needed to develop tourism in the region.
For many years, the tourist board has been attempting to attract more visitors to the region along the River Shannon. Waterways like this in any other country would be busy with boats but not the River Shannon.
The Shannon flows quietly on through locks and tributaries to the sea.
While numbers cruising along the River Shannon increased slightly last year, many companies are struggling to survive.
It costs just 17 pence to take a boat through swing bridges and canal locks, a price that has not changed for many years. The lock keeper believes that 17 pence might be a potential attraction to tourists but is a ridiculous sum of money to swing a bridge for. He believes that people would not object to paying a pound considering the facilities that are provided to travel along the unpolluted water.
Aisling a ballad group from Wicklow provide musical entertainment on board a cabin cruiser.
This was one in a series of reports examining tourism in the River Shannon region.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 16 April 1981. The reporter is Peter McNiff.
