Irish tourism companies travelled to London, to join Tourism Ireland for the 2015 Telegraph Outdoor Adventure Travel & Bike Show.
Pictured are Ian Cumming, Martin McMullan and Chris Scott, all Mountain Bike Northern Ireland; former Irish cyclists Stephen Roche and Darach McQuaid; Michael Beare, Finn Lough Lakeside Lodges; Jim Maher, Select Hotels of Ireland; and Craig McCullough, Mountain Bike Northern Ireland; (front, l-r) Anne Phelan, Trailwalkers Ireland; Gearóid O’Meachair, Rural Irish Holidays; Maura Mullins, Trailwalkers Ireland; Carol Hinch, Ballynahinch Castle Hotel; and Mick Breen, Irish Centre for Cycling. The four-day event is the largest exhibition in Britain for adventure and outdoors enthusiasts, attracting around 55,000 visitors each year from London, the South East and elsewhere around Great Britain. It was an ideal opportunity to showcase Ireland to one of Tourism Ireland’s key audiences – ‘great escapers’, who want to get away from the stress of a busy life and are interested in active experiences and exciting exploration of the countryside.
Vanessa Markey, Tourism Ireland’s head of Great Britain, said: “The Telegraph Outdoor Adventure Travel & Bike Show provided a wonderful platform for Tourism Ireland, and our industry partners, to showcase the superb outdoors and adventure experiences on offer right around the island of Ireland. It was also a really good opportunity for us to continue to highlight the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coastal Route, as well as the plethora of land and water-based activities like surfing, diving and hiking – helping to encourage more outdoor and adventure enthusiasts around Britain to consider the island of Ireland in 2015.”
Great Britain is our largest tourism market and in 2014 we saw growth of +8% in visitor numbers from Britain, an additional 235,000 British visitors compared to 2013.
