Ireland is a ‘destination to watch’ in 2016, says luxury and lifestyle travel website

Condé Nast Traveller online, the luxury and lifestyle travel website, has listed Ireland as one of the “Top 10 Destinations to Watch in 2016”.

The endorsement on a website with 270,000 unique users each month has been welcomed by Tourism Ireland, with CEO Niall Gibbons describing it as “a great hook to continue to promote the island of Ireland as a ‘must visit’ destination”.

The CNTraveller.com article says that Dublin is earmarked for the “party of the century in March 2016 for the centenary of the Irish Republic” with “€22 million to blow”.

The upbeat introduction to the article reads: “Talk about a revival. Ireland has completely turned its fortunes around, with its economy the fastest-growing in the EU in 2015. Dublin is a city on its uppers, buzzing along in a permanent state of celebration.”

It’s a sure sign that things are back on track when there are people in the pubs mid-week again (it went a bit tumbleweedy for a while),” says deputy chief sub-editor Gráinne McBride.

“Dublin has reinvented itself as a youthful tech hub, with all the blue-sky, San Francisco-esque creative thinking that Google and the gang have brought to town, and the food scene is more exciting than ever,” the article says. The West also gets a mention: “The lovely town of Galway chalked down its second Michelin-starred restaurant in September, making the West Coast a serious rival to the East in terms of foodie credentials.”

Its article also references the Belmond Grand Hibernian, a luxury rail experience due to launch in August 2016.

“The whole country has been working on that traditional Irish welcome, and making it easier for travellers to explore. First, by train. Glorious, old-fashioned, tartan-and-polished-wood train: Ireland is getting its very own Orient-Express.”

For road-trippers, the article mentions the Wild Atlantic Way “more country lane than highway, meandering down the West Coast from Derry to Kinsale, with the most dramatic rocky coastline” and of course Skellig Michael which has just played a starring role in the new Star Wars film and in The Lobster”.

Then there’s the reference to Ireland’s “Ancient East, a journey through 5,000 years of rich history; while in Northern Ireland 2016 is the year of food and drink”.

The writer says she is also looking forward to “star- gazing from a four-poster bed in a bubble-like forest dome at Finn Lough Resort in Enniskillen, also opening in 2016”.

Other destinations in the list include Quito, Lisbon, Zanzibar, and Nepal.

Mr Gibbons said the inclusion of Ireland “is good news indeed and will surely help to inspire travellers in Britain to put the island of Ireland on their holiday wish-list for 2016”.