Donegal operator growing tourism from Europe

Tourism operators from around Ireland, including B&B Ireland, who are based in Ballyshannon, met with the Tourism Ireland team from Mainland Europe, at a networking event in Kildare.
At the event, the various tourism operators provided updates and news of interesting developments at their properties and visitor attractions; and Tourism Ireland outlined details of its extensive promotional programme which is under way throughout 2017, to grow tourism from Mainland Europe.
Among those attending the event was Louise McGee, representing B&B Ireland.
Mainland Europe is now the largest single source of holidaymakers and revenue for the island of Ireland – delivering 34% (€1.8 billion) of all overseas tourism revenue and approximately a third of all overseas visitors (3.3 million) in 2016.
Finola O’Mahony, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Europe, said: “We were delighted to have the chance to meet with representatives of the tourism industry and to hear directly about their latest developments and how their business is doing. It also afforded us the opportunity to share details of the busy programme of promotions which Tourism Ireland is undertaking in Mainland Europe, to build on the success of 2016 and continue to grow overseas visitor numbers to the island of Ireland in 2017.
“Latest CSO figures confirm that arrivals from Mainland Europe for February to April grew by over +2% – with important markets like France (+8.6%), Germany (+3.8%) and Spain (+10.4%) continuing to perform well.”
Tourism Ireland promotes the island of Ireland in nine Mainland European markets – Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic region, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.