12 February 2022
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
First in-person Tourism meeting since COVID
Visit Cork, the official tourism body for the Cork region, hosted an in-person briefing for everyone involved in the tourism industry on Thursday 10th February at Fota Island Resort Hotel. The event was addressed by An Taoiseach Micheal Martin virtually, to offer his support to the wider tourism industry in Cork.
This was the first in-person tourism briefing to take place in Cork since March 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions. Visit Cork has continued to communicate with the tourism industry throughout the pandemic, most notably running online familiarisation sessions which attracted weekly audiences of up to 100 attendees. However, this weeks event – on Thursday morning- was a welcome break from meeting virtually and provided an opportunity to hear about recovery plans from key industry stakeholders.
Attendees gained an insight into Visit Cork’s achievements over the past two years and recovery plans for leisure tourism (Pure Cork) and business tourism (Cork Convention Bureau). They were joined by their partners in Fáilte Ireland and Cork Airport.
It was a dynamic session with an opening address from Gerard O’ Mahoney Chair of Visit Cork, Seamus Heaney Head of Visit Cork, Evelyn O’Sullivan Manager of Cork Convention Bureau, Sam Johnson Manager Convention Bureaux of Ireland, Brian O’Flynn Head of Ireland’s Ancient East and Brian Gallagher Head of Aviation and Commercial Business Development Cork Airport.
Commenting on the industry event, Seamus Heaney, Head of Visit Cork, said, “Tourism has had an unbelievably difficult time over the last 2 years and now more than ever we need to ensure the correct supports are in place to facilitate the recovery. We encourage everyone involved in the tourism industry in Cork to… explore how they can work with Pure Cork and Cork Convention Bureau to enhance their business and help collectively promote all that Cork has to offer to domestic and international business and leisure visitors.”