Tourism

New Paris Tourism Event

Ring in Italy Promotion

Michael Ring TD, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, was in Italy to meet a number of key Italian travel decision-makers. Minister Ring was participating in a "Promote Ireland" programme around St Patrick's Day – helping to promote tourism to Ireland and inviting members of the Diaspora living in Italy to come home during this special year of The Gathering Ireland.

Tourism Ireland’s St Patrick’s 2013 programme spanned Great Britain, Mainland Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as emerging tourism markets like China, India, the Middle East and South Africa. About 70 landmark buildings and iconic sites around the world went green at the weekend to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. In Italy, they included the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Palazzo della Loggia in Brescia and the Torre del Filarete in Milan. Elsewhere around the globe, the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye, Selfridges in London, Niagara Falls, Burj al Arab in Dubai and the Prince’s Palace of Monaco were all illuminated in green as the sun set on 17 March. Tourism Ireland took every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland’s heightened profile around St Patrick’s weekend, with the saturation coverage about Ireland across the global airwaves, in newspapers and digital media, proving an invaluable boost for Ireland’s overall tourism marketing drive this year.

McGrath Plans Healthy Eating Website

Chef Dylan McGrath says that he wants to dispel the nation’s confusion over diet by offering healthy recipes on a new website.

The 35 year old, who features on the tv programme 'Masterchef' runs three restaurants in Dublin.

'They told me you couldn’t come back from a recession. They told me you couldn’t cook on a stone. They told me customers wouldn’t cook their own food. Then they told me you couldn’t open two more restaurants in a recession', he says in an interview wth 'Tatler Man'.

He said he initially felt very let down by Ireland when his Michelin-starred restaurant, Mint, closed its doors in 2009. ' I was angry at Ireland. I was quite prepared to let Ireland cook its own food.'

Sugar Hotel for London

The world’s first “hotel” made entirely of cake is to welcome guests for one night only — with room service in the form of vanilla sponge cushions and a hand-stitched meringue rug.

The hotel within a hotel in Soho, central London, is the creation of more than 14 artists, who spent 2,000 hours baking and 900 hours decorating with more than 600kg of sugar.

Guests will be encouraged to eat their way through windows and walls clad with 2,000 macaroons, a rug made from 1,081 meringues hand-stitched together, 20kg of marshmallow garlands, windowsills built entirely of fudge and a bath filled with caramel-coated popcorn.