F‡ilte Ireland announce blueprint to build on Volvo Race success

Date Published: {J}

The national tourism development authority is seeking to build on the positive exposure generated by last year’s Volvo Ocean Race stopover as they anticipate an increase of 230,000 visitors to Ireland in 2010.

Fáilte Ireland announced that it would be developing the tourism infrastructure in the West and providing support for local businesses and cultural festivals during the year ahead.

The Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Galway City – now back on the agenda for a repeat visit following this week’s announcement of up to €4 million in funding from Government – was described as a great success and one of the highlights of the 2009 tourism calendar at the annual Tourism in the West briefing at the Ardilaun Hotel yesterday.

Head of Operations for Fáilte Ireland Fiona Monaghan said that 2009 could be summed up as the year of “boats and business” as more than 300 tourism and hospitality operations in the West received training from the authority prior to the Ocean Race festival.

The stopover resulted in more than 200,000 bed nights for the city and county last summer as 650,000 visitors flocked to the Race Village and Salthill during the event. Almost €56 million was injected into the local economy during the two week festival.

Ms Monaghan told the briefing that one of the key priorities for 2010 is to build on the positive exposure that the West received last summer as 1.327 billion people tuned in to watch the Galway leg of the event on television.

“Fáilte Ireland in the West will not be taking its foot off the pedal in 2010,” she said. “We will aggressively chase every business and every drop of potential in the home holiday market and we will continue to provide significant business supports and advice to tourism businesses throughout the year.”

Specific plans for the tourism industry in the West include increased emphasis on outdoor and adventure activities, development and growth of ‘spiritual tourism’, support for an extensive cultural festivals programme and the provision of practical supports for local tourism businesses.

CEO of Fáilte Ireland Shaun Quinn said that there was cause for some optimism in 2010 and the tourism authority anticipates growing the country’s visitor numbers by 3% to 7.85 million during the year ahead.

“This time last year the outlook amongst tourism operators was universally bleak, prompting a widespread belief that 2009 was all about survival,” he said. “This year the tectonic plates of business sentiment are shifting somewhat.”

For more, read page 7 of this week’s Connacht Tribune.