Mid-west pins hopes on tourism strategy

FOLLOWING a big drop in visitors last year, a new strategy to market the mid-west as a tourism destination will be launched next week.

Shannon Development, the tourism authority for Limerick, Clare, north Tipperary and south Offaly, will unveil its plans at an industry briefing being in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland on January 21.

John King, tourism director at Shannon Development, said: “As a result of the full implementation of open skies, the impact of the loss of the Shannon-Heathrow air link and the currency weakness against the euro, overall visitor numbers in the Shannon region will show a decrease in 2008.

“But against the tough economic background Shannon Development succeeded in signing 35 major tourism marketing agreements with key travel companies worldwide.

“These initiatives, undertaken directly by Shannon Development, resulted in over 426,000 additional bed nights for the Shannon region and boosted visitor spend in the area by over €43 million.”

The marketing plan will highlight key challenges facing global tourism and how that will impact on tourism in the region.

Mr King said: “Shannon Development will continue to build on its network of international tourism contacts in airline vacation companies and with key tour operators in all key markets and seek out new business opportunities from national and international tourism markets.”

The seminar is free and is open to all industry representatives. Registration for the event is 10am and the event will finish at 1pm.

Calling on the tourism industry to attend the marketing launch, Mr King said “Tourism is now the largest indigenous Irish industry, accounting for over €500m of direct tourism expenditure in this region alone, and will be central to the future economic development of the west.

“I would strongly encourage tourism industry members to attend this event to get a full briefing on the activities of the tourism agencies, and use the forum to raise issues specific to their business or sector. The events are also a major networking opportunity between people in the industry.”