It's after initiatives last year including the Ancient East look set to drive up the number of visitors from Ireland and beyond to the Marble City.
June in particular is a busy month, with the Dublin footballers set to play a Championship match in Nowlan Park, which will also play host to Rod Stewart.
CEO of Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce John Hurley says the next 12 months are exciting for local businesses:
"We're rubbing our hands together here in Kilkenny because we've a very interesting whole year for 2016 planned with Ireland's Ancient East having recently been rolled out.
And this year now Failte Ireland is investing some 17 million euro in the further promotion of that.
So we're expecting our visitor numbers from all quarters to increase greatly on what we got last year."
