Travel pair receive tourism honour

TWO key players in international travel have been honoured in Killarney for their contribution to the area’s multi-million euro tourism industry.

Margaret Cahill, head of Tourism Ireland in Europe, and Colin Algate, managing director of Globus Cosmos, have been invested as members of the Order of Innisfallen.

Killarney mayor Sheila Casey, speaking at a presentation ceremony, said the honour acknowledged their work, which was helping to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area.

In a citation read by Killarney hotelier Michael Rosney, Ms Cahill was praised for her marketing innovations and for developing previously overlooked segments of the British market.

The number of European visitors to Ireland has doubled in recent years and the 2005 figure of 1.93 million is expected to grow to well over two million in 2006.

In 1976, Colin Algate joined the Globus Group to develop a new business bringing visitors to Britain and Ireland.

Killarney has since been one of the key destinations in the majority of Globus and Cosmos schedules.

A year ago, Anne Wold-Graham, director, TG&A International, Jerry Quinlan, of Jerry Quinlan’s Celtic Golf, and Brian Stack, vice-president, CIE Tourism International, North America, were invested as the first members of the Order of Innisfallen.

Ms Casey said it was important to acknowledge the huge contribution that the travel trade had made to Killarney over 130 years.

“The Order of Innisfallen will each year acknowledge an outstanding contribution by a non-resident of Killarney who has made a significant contribution to the general well-being of Killarney,” she said.