Wexford hotel group forms part of Tourism Ireland trade mission

A Wexford hotel group was represented at a sales trip to Australia and New Zealand.

After three years of virtual events, this was Tourism Ireland’s first in-person trade mission since before the pandemic.

Nine tourism companies from Ireland – including the Ferrycarrig Hotel and Monart Destination Spa (part of Griffin Group) – joined Tourism Ireland for the ten-day sales blitz which visited Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

The sales mission involved Fiona Delahunty from the Ferrycarrig group and her peers meeting, and doing business with, hundreds of influential travel agents, tour operators, airlines and travel journalists through a series of workshops and networking events.

The aim was to engage with travel professionals in the four cities who are currently selling Ireland, or who have good potential to sell the destination in the future – and to encourage them to extend their Ireland offering, or to include Ireland for the first time, in their brochures and programmes.

Tourism Ireland’s Manager Australia and New Zealand, Sofia Hansson said: “Our sales mission is an important element of our programme of activity in Australia and New Zealand this year – to highlight the many things to see and do, and all that is new and exciting, on a holiday to Ireland. It gives our tourism partners from Ireland an excellent platform to inform and influence the travel professionals they meet about what Ireland has to offer and, importantly, to encourage them to include the destination in their future brochures and programmes.”

In 2019, Ireland welcomed 252,000 visitors from Australia and New Zealand, whose visits delivered €245 million for the economy.