Ireland's tourism industry is in safe hands as former Ireland and Celtic goalkeeper Packie Bonner has given his support to a new Tourism Ireland campaign to help boost visitor numbers from Scotland in 2017.
The workshop and networking event had 25 tourism businesses, including hotels, visitor attractions, ferry companies and regional tourism organizations, meet Scottish tour operators, travel agents, as well as local travel and lifestyle journalists. It was timed to coincide with Celtic Connections, Scotland’s premier winter music festival, with the goal of highlighting Ireland's music and culture to a ‘culturally curious’ audience.
Vanessa Markey, Tourism Ireland’s head of Great Britain, said: "I am delighted that so many of our tourism partners from Ireland have joined us in Glasgow this week, highlighting our tourism offering to influential Scottish tour operators and travel agents. Great Britain is our largest tourism market and 2016 was a very good year for visitor numbers to Ireland from Britain, with the latest CSO figures showing an increase of over +11 per cent for January to November.
"Since the UK referendum on Brexit, Tourism Ireland has been closely monitoring developments in the British outbound travel market. As our nearest neighbour and our largest market for overseas tourism, Britain will remain a priority for us. The depreciation of sterling against the euro since the referendum means that value for money will be a key message for us in Britain this year. In 2017, Tourism Ireland will continue to work with our industry partners to highlight the ease of getting to the island of Ireland."
