Tourism chiefs must think luxury not just ancient

As the tourist year starts to wind down from the high point of summer into the autumn shoulder season, Ireland’s tourism agencies are looking to new markets with lucrative potential for 2018 and beyond, writes John Daly.

Fáilte Ireland is currently developing a “luxury strategy” to target growth in numbers of high net worth visitors from the US and Asia.

While Ireland has already been successful in attracting high-end ‘golf and castles’ tourism to the value of €200m annually, a much bigger jackpot estimated at over €170bn globally is also available to exploit.