Eleven of Ireland's best known heritage attractions were visited by tour operators and travel trade from April 19-21 as part of a tourism familiarisation trip to the Ireland West region hosted by Heritage Island. These included Strokestown Park, Lough Key Forest & Activity Park, King House, Arigna Mining Experience, Westport Heritage Town, Kylemore Abbey & Garden, Dan O’Hara’s Heritage & History Centre, Galway City Museum and Dartfield-Ireland’s Horseworld, Museum and Equestrian Park. Belvedere House, Gardens & Park in Mullingar and Locke's Distillery Museum in Kilbeggan were also visited as part of the trip.

The Ireland West region is home to some of Ireland’s finest attractions and it is important that tour operators and decision makers within the tourism industry are aware of the variety of things to see and do in the area.

Ms. Nora Walsh, Manager of Dan O’Hara’s Heritage & History Centre said “We are delighted that Dan O’Hara’s was included as part of this Heritage Island educational. It provides a great opportunity to raise awareness and grow our tour operator business for next season.”

Forty tour operators and travel trade visited eleven attractions and heritage towns in counties Westmeath, Roscommon, Mayo and Galway from 19-21 April. The trip was organised by Heritage Island to highlight the area’s culture and heritage and to promote tourism to the region. Sponsorship was received from Fáilte Ireland, Fáilte Ireland West, Fáilte Ireland East & Midlands Region and Fáilte Ireland North West.

One of the highlights of the trip was a guided tour and drinks reception hosted by Fáilte Ireland West at Galway City Museum on Friday evening (pictured above).
The group was based in the Clarion Hotel, Sligo on Thursday and in the Quality Hotel, Oranmore on Friday.

Press coverage of the trip was received in The Leitrim Observer, The Roscommon Herald & The Galway City Tribune. If members would like copies of these articles please telephone the office on
+353 1 236 6890.

Heritage Island has recently attended a number of shows tageting the Education market, overseas tour operators and domestic visitors.

Early April saw Heritage Island take the opportunity to promote its Education Tours Directory to over 1,000 teachers at the INTO and TUI annual conferences. The group took a stand at the INTO conference in the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork from 10th to 11th April and at the TUI conference which ran concurrently in the Great Northern Hotel in Bundoran. Both shows were well attended and were an excellent means of promoting Ireland’s visitor attractions and Heritage Towns to the education sector at a time when many teachers are looking for ideas for school tours.

In May meanwhile, Heritage Island took appointments at both the Fáilte Ireland Meitheal Workshop and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) Workshop with priority tour operators attending from around the globe. Both workshops allowed Heritage Island to meet with and update key tour operators on our centres as well as on new developments within the group. Any members wishing to get a listing of contacts made at the Fáilte Ireland and NITB workshops can do so by contacting the office on +353 1 236 6890.

This year Heritage Island attended the Balmoral Show in Belfast for the first time. The show took place in the Balmoral Showgrounds from 16th to 18th May. It attracted over 75,000 visitors and was an excellent platform at which to promote Ireland's leading visitor attractions and heritage towns with over 2,000 Heritage Island brochures distributed in the 3 days.

Heritage Island brochures were also distributed at last weekend's Bloom Show in Dublin's Phoenix Park. Bloom celebrated outdoor living with a four-day extravaganza and was designed to international standards along the lines of the shows in Chelsea and Hampton Court.

The summer months will see Heritage Island participate in a number of heritage and lifestyle shows. These include the RDS Horseshow in August, Fleurig-National Garden Fair in the Netherlands and the Country Living Fair in Hampshire (both taking place in July).
As part of our established agreement with Ireland’s Blue Book, Heritage Island Touring Guides and Ireland’s Cultural Explorer brochures will also be distributed at the Taste of Dublin and Taste of Bath shows and the Tatton Park Flower Show in Cheshire.

Results from our first performance review of 2007 relay a positive start to the season for most Heritage Island members. This, along with word of mouth and other qualitative feedback would suggest the strong performance of Irish tourism in the past twelve months is set to continue.

Covering the season to end March, notable statistics included:

 All Dublin respondents showed increases of 5-10% for year to date
 Northern Ireland centres were performing strongly, with an average increase of 5-10% for all respondents
 Visitor numbers to Ireland West and Shannon were approximately level with 2006
 Within East Coast and Midlands region, centres in County Wicklow were up between 5-10% for year to date; however, Westmeath attractions have experienced a flatter season with numbers approximately on a par with 2006 levels
 84% of respondents had seen an increase in their FIT business
 64% had seen growth from the schools market
 82% of centres had experienced growth in domestic visitors
 All respondents reported business from Rest of Europe as same as or better than 2006 levels.

In summary, the usual variations can be seen from region to region; however, taken overall, the outlook for 2007 is generally positive.