11 October 2015
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Fáilte Ireland will today begin showcasing Cork to a group of 40 influential US travel buyers who arrived in Ireland this weekend ahead of the third workshop in a series of six Fáilte Ireland Autumn Sales Workshops, designed to allow Irish tourism businesses to pitch to overseas operators encouraging them to sell Ireland to their customers next year.
An initial workshop takes place in the Heritage Golf & Spa Resort in Laois on Wednesday 14th October at the US Destination Expo with nearly 100 Irish tourism industry partners from across the country, including a number from Cork.
To further showcase Ireland, Fáilte Ireland have put together two customised itineraries allowing the travelling agents to get a first-hand experience of all that Ireland has to offer before the workshop next week – including Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Clare, Dublin, Cavan, Meath, Laois, Wicklow and Fermanagh.
Among the highlights which the group will experience while in Cork includes a visit to Cobh Heritage Centre to hear the story of Cobh’s unique origins, they will then take a Titanic walking tour of Cobh with Michael Martin before heading to Fota Ireland Resort for a show around and lunch followed by a visit to Fota House & Arboretum. The group will then depart for Waterford where they will overnight in Faithlegg House Hotel & Golf Resort.
These specialised workshops, which are organised by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, focus on target markets considered as areas of potential growth for Ireland. Speaking today, Ciara Sugrue, Head of Publicity, Trade and Promotions, Fáilte Ireland said: “We are delighted to be welcoming these top US travel operators to Ireland and know they will enjoy their visit including their time in Cork. The US is a lucrative market for Ireland with over 700,000 US holidaymakers coming to Ireland in 2014 which was worth just under €600 million, these US operators have the capacity to deliver significant amounts of visitors to Ireland and their presence is a testimony to Ireland’s appeal as a destination.
