Game of Thrones is Top Outdoor Campaign Tourism Ireland’s 2016 Game of Thrones campaign has been selected by advertising and marketing magazine Campaign as the UK’s number one outdoor campaign of 2016. Tourism Ireland’s ‘Doors of Thrones’ campaign to attract visitors to Northern Ireland has reached an estimated 61 million people around the world, with the campaign’s short films being viewed 17 million times – [...]

Media Trips Deliver Audience of One Billion Last year was a bumper year for international media coming to Ireland. Over 1,000 representatives from print, broadcast and online channels across the world descended on our shores during the year, providing Irish tourism with an overall reach to over one billion readers and viewers worldwide. The advertising value of this reach is estimated at over 287m. Fáilte [...]

Ireland Scoops ‘Best Destination’ Award Ireland scooped a major travel award in New York – for the third year in a row. In December Ireland was named ‘best destination: Europe’ at the annual Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards, beating off tough competition from England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Travel Weekly is the leading weekly newspaper for American travel agents and travel professionals and 15,000 [...]

Gas Networks Sponsors ‘The Restaurant Gas Networks Ireland is sponsoring TV3’s The Restaurant, which returns to screens this year for its 11th series. The new series of The Restaurant goes into production this month and will air on TV3 in early 2017. The show returns this year to Marco Pierre White’s Courtyard Bar & Grill in Donnybrook, with the world-class chef joining the critics’ table [...]

Bord Bia Talent Search Gets Underway Bord Bia and the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School started their search on January 4th for 30 professionals who can become future leaders in Ireland’s food industry. The Bord Bia Marketing Fellowship and Origin Green Ambassador programmes are run in conjunction with UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Successful applicants on both programmes will have their tuition fees [...]

Musgrave Sponsors Chef Network Musgrave MarketPlace has launched ‘The Chef Blog’ as part of a sponsorship agreement with Chef Network. The new blog allows chef members to submit guest blogposts on a range of topics, including food and industry trends, Irish food heritage, seasonality, specific chef skillsets and nurturing talent, to help expand chefs’ knowledge base and encourage greater collaboration.

Ireland Launches French Campaign Tourism Ireland in France launched its marketing plans for 2017 at an event in Paris attended by 50 leading French tour operators, travel agents and travel journalists. Major promotional themes will include the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coastal Route, living historical stories and Ireland’s Ancient East, as well as city breaks to Dublin and Belfast. Monica MacLaverty, Tourism Ireland’s [...]

Aramark Manager Wins Hospitality Award Aramark frontline manager Yvonne Pugh won the Irish Hospitality Manager of the Year award at the Irish Hospitality Institute’s 50th anniversary founders banquet in December. The awards recognise outstanding achievements within the hospitality industry. Frank Gleeson, Managing Director of Northern Europe for Aramark, said that Yvonne has shown a constant commitment to excellence in her work for many years, while [...]

4 Stars for Clybaun Hotel Galway’s Clybaun Hotel was recently awarded four star classification by Fáilte Ireland. The recent award to the Knocknacarra-based hotel follows an extensive million euro refurbishment and upgrading of facilities and amenities over the last year and a half. “Refurbishment work started in March 2015 when the hotel’s ballroom was completely refurbished and remodelled,” explains General Manager Fintan Loftus. “The function [...]

Donegal Tops Cool List for 2017 National Geographic Traveller named Donegal as its top tip to visit in 2017 as it published its ‘Cool List: 17 for 2017’ on December 1st. The list captures the ‘top culture capitals, hipster hotspots, wild escapes and places generally keeping it cool’, and which the publication recommends checking out in 2017. Other destinations making the list are Santiago, Helsinki, [...]

Lough Erne Serves Up a Winning Dinner As part of the Year of Food and Drink, the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation hosted a competition to find the best hotel restaurant in Northern Ireland. On November 28th 2016, some of Northern Ireland’s leading hotels gathered in the Galgorm Resort & Spa where the prestigious accolade of ‘Hotel Restaurant of the Year 2016’, sponsored by Stephens Catering [...]

Titanic Recruitment Drive in Belfas In the biggest recruitment drive since it opened in 2012, Titanic Belfast is recruiting 60 front line staff as it gears up for its summer high season. The venue is recruiting for fixed-term contracts across the front line at Titanic Belfast and on-board SS Nomadic, including visitor experience, ticketing, hospitality outlets, retail and events to join its over 250 strong [...]

Cronin Travel Celebrates 60 Years Celebrations to mark 60 years in business for the Cronin family were held in the Dingle Skellig Hotel on January 14th. Three generations of the family gathered with 130 of their staff and partners to mark this significant achievement. The business was started in 1957 by Cork man Dermot Cronin with just one taxi and it has since evolved into [...]

Taoiseach Promotes Ireland in Spain Taoiseach Enda Kenny was in Madrid last month to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. He also met with Tourism Ireland staff, as well as leading Spanish tour operators and airlines who programme and sell holidays to Ireland. Spain is an important market for tourism to the island of Ireland. Travel by Spaniards to Ireland has grown significantly over [...]