News Release -
Shannon Development Confident of Home Holiday Boost for The Shannon Region
“We are delighted with the level of enquiries and interest show by potential holidaymakers who visited us at the Shannon Region tourism stand at the recent Holiday World Shows in Dublin, Belfast and Limerick. A trend we are noticing this year in particular is an increase in the number of shorter holiday breaks that people say they will be taking. The Shannon Region stand proved popular with both consumers and national tourism media, and we are confident that this interest will result in additional visitors to the Shannon Region during 2006,” says Mr. John King, Heritage and Tourism Director, Shannon Development.
Tourism is now Ireland’s largest indigenous industry, and the Ireland market is the most important market for most tourism businesses in the Shannon Region. In a bid to further grow this business, Shannon Development has just launched a new Shannon Region holiday brochure as part of a major home holiday campaign.
The launch took place at the ‘Holiday World’ travel shows in Belfast, Dublin and Limerick, which were attended by over 100,000 prospective holiday makers. “The new 24 page full colour Shannon Region home holiday brochure emphasises value for money, offering visitors “extra value” breaks and a range of diverse holiday packages. It gives details of hundreds of holiday offers by 60 tourism providers in the Shannon Region, including mid week breaks, weekend breaks, themed breaks, and activity breaks, and the brochure proved very popular at the Holiday World Shows,” says Kevin O’ Loughlin, tourism executive, Shannon Development.
Shannon Development co-ordinated the Shannon Region tourism trade participation at the holiday shows. Visitors to the Dublin Holiday World Show were given a unique opportunity to enjoy a free surf lesson at the Shannon Region tourism stand with current Irish senior surf champion John McCarthy from Lahinch Surf School. Surfing is just one of hundreds of holiday options from this year’s Shannon Region holiday brochure which Shannon Development staff and members of the Shannon Region tourism trade actively promoted at the holiday world shows. Among the prestigious visitors to the Shannon Region stand were Taoiseach Bertie Ahern T.D. and John O' Donoghue, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.
“ This year’s home holiday drive is set to be one of our most comprehensive ever. Following the success of the holiday world shows, we will provide the partnership platform for the Shannon Region Tourism Trade to promote their products at a number of domestic, special interest, and consumer shows, tailored to the Irish market including; the ‘over 50’s Shows’ in Dublin and Cork, Irish Open Golf, the Smurfit European Open and the Fáilte Ireland Golf Show in Belfast, the National Ploughing Championships, and a series of shopping centre promotions throughout the country. We are also target a broad range of overseas tourism promotion, say Mr. King.
(l-r); John O' Donoghue, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD., met members of the Shannon Region tourism industry, Marie Slattery, Shannon Heritage and John Madden, Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis, at the Shannon Development tourism stand at Holiday World Dublin recently. The new 2006 Shannon Region home holiday brochure was officially launched at Holiday World.
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