Tourism minister Brendan Griffin joined tourism enterprises from the island of Ireland in London this week for Flavours of Ireland 2019.
Flavours of Ireland is Tourism Ireland's annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Ireland meet and do business with approximately 120 UK inbound tour operators.
Now in its 17th year, Flavours of Ireland aims to grow Ireland's share of the worldwide travel market.
Attended by UK inbound tour operators who bring business to Ireland and the UK from all over the world, the event provided the participating tourism operators from Ireland with an opportunity to highlight and sell their products to these decision-makers and to encourage them to feature the island of Ireland in their 2020 holiday and tour programmes.
"Delighted"
Tourism Ireland's director of markets, Siobhan McManamy, commented, "Tourism Ireland is delighted that so many tourism organisations from the island of Ireland and so many of the leading UK inbound tour operators took the time to join us at our Flavours event again this year. We very much welcome the business and networking opportunities it presented. Our aim is to increase awareness of the island of Ireland among these hugely influential tour operators and to help Ireland and our tourism partners secure a greater share of the huge worldwide tourism market.
"A Really Good Opportunity"
McManamy added, "Figures published by the CSO last week confirm that we welcomed almost 7.4 million overseas visitors during the January to August period, a modest growth of 2.2% over the same eight-month period in 2018. Tourism Ireland has a really extensive autumn campaign in full swing right now, which aims to take advantage of late booking trends around the world, as there is still plenty of business to play for. Many people are opting for shorter holiday breaks, and autumn is a really good opportunity, with many world-class festivals and events happening right around the island. One of our key objectives is to drive more business to our regions right throughout the off-peak and shoulder season months."
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
