While entrance may be free, Galway City Museum is providing a major boost to the city's economy, with a new survey showing that 50,000 visitors will pass through its doors this year. Deputy Director Breandan O hEaghra tells Colin Bartley why the historic building is such as asset to the city

Located at the Spanish Arch, Galway City Museum is a building that many of us pass by everyday without paying much notice to what is going on inside.

However, this cultural centre is quietly playing a huge role in the city's tourist industry by attracting enthusiasts to the area, with a knock-on affect for local businesses.

"The value of the museum to the city is huge. We can't put a figure monetarily on it, as we don't charge at the door, but it is attracting people to the city and there is the obvious follow on for businesses from that and to the city," says Deputy Director, Breandan O hEaghra.

From a trickle of a couple of hundred visitors a week on opening in 2006, this year the museum is getting about a thousand visitors a week, a figure that Breandan says confirms the museum as a must-see tourist attraction.

"That figure is excellent. When you think that in our first year in 2006, it was 11,000 and this year we are expecting 50,000, it's huge really. I guess we have established ourselves and it is a place that people now come to visit when they visit Galway."

However, while many are travelling from far and wide to visit the museum, local residents seem to be lagging behind when it comes to discovering this historical haven.

A recent US University survey about the museum showed that it attracts a young adult audience, mainly from outside the local area. While 50,000 people will see the exhibitions on display this year, most are not from the local area and have yet to realise that this great resource is free to the public.

Breandan and the dedicated museum team aim to change this mindset and get more local people excited about Galway, its history and its future.

In the meantime, Galway City Museum is enjoying its success, as getting to this point has not been easy. The development team had to put in a lot of work initially to getting the museum noticed and established.