News

Brosnan Promotes Irish Tourism

Tourism Ireland has teamed up with the Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) to create a new series of short videos to showcase Ireland. The first of these videos features pbrosnan

actor Pierce Brosnan.

In the video, Pierce speaks about his love for Ireland and, in particular, for Kerry and his hometown of Navan, in Co Meath. Viewers will also see some of our wonderful scenery and top attractions like the Ring of Kerry, Dingle, the Skelligs, Ross Castle, Cahergall Stone Fort Fort and the Reeks District.

This video is part of Tourism Ireland’s #FillYourHeartWithIreland (#FYHWI) online campaign. At a time when international visitors cannot travel here, Tourism Ireland is rolling out its #FYHWI campaign – sharing inspirational content about the island of Ireland with its millions of fans and followers on social media. The aim is to keep Ireland ‘top of mind’ with prospective international visitors.

Hope follows 'Stay Put' 2020

A quarter of all people took no holiday either at home or abroad last year, according to new research published by Fáilte Ireland.

However, the State tourism body said there were signs that more consumers were likely to take either short or long breaks within Ireland over the summer. visitors0919

A survey of consumer’s travel habits found 25% did not take any break during 2020, compared to 9% the previous year.

The proportion of people who said they did not take any long holiday was even higher and rose to 48% last year from 21% in 2019.

Fáilte Ireland said the figures showed that domestic holiday rates did not increase during 2020, despite restrictions on international travel.

Hotel Bookings at 'All Time Low'

Summer bookings for Irish hotels and guesthouses are at an historic low according to the latest survey from the Irish Hotels Federation . Currently booking levels of just 21% are timfenn0218

being reported for July, with 20% for August - traditionally the busiest months of the year. With the news at the weekend that the hospitality sector is unlikely to reopen before mid-summer, the IHF is calling for certainty around business and employee supports as a matter urgency.

IHF Chief Executive, Tim Fenn said: “We have never seen bookings levels for the key summer months so low at this time of year. The domestic market was a real positive for hotels and guesthouses last year and we expect home holidays to be very important again this year. However, in the meantime, hotels have to plan, and the lack of certainty over business supports is a huge challenge for hospitality businesses.

Wellness Centre seeks travel guidance

The owner of a wellness retreat that had been offering cut-price deals to frontline medics has said she is awaiting a response from Gardaí as to whether or not anyone staying elbowroom there was actually in breach of the 5km rule.

Lisa Wilkinson, who has run the Elbowroom for almost two decades, said she had stopped offering 50% reduced stays at her centre in Wicklow after two medics rescued a lost dog last month, only to subsequently become the subject of a complaint that they had breached the 5km rule.

Ms Wilkinson, who is also training to be a barrister, said she had lodged a query with An Garda Síochána regarding the statute, as she said it was possible that travel beyond 5km was permitted for health reasons or reasons of avoiding ill health.

Food Safety cases fall in 2020

Although the Covid-19 pandemic saw a decline in the number of cases reported to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s (FSAI) Advice Line in 2020 compared to the previous haccp

year, complaints included finding glass in soup, live insects crawling in rice, and sewage smells in premises.

Overall, complaints dropped from 3,460 reported in 2019 to 2,772 last year, the FSAI said. Just under two-thirds of complaints made related to unfit food and poor hygiene standards, with each category almost evenly split.

Contamination of food with foreign objects was frequently reported in 2020, including allegations of food containing insects, plastics and other foreign objects.

"Examples of complaints received included hair reported several times as being present in a number of foods; sharp glass in soup and fried noodles; live insects crawling through rice and; snails in a packet of spinach and a bag of frozen mixed fruits.

"Small pieces of stone, moths and rodent droppings in food were also reported," the FSAI said.

When it came to complaints regarding poor hygiene standards in food premises, examples included live mice and evidence of rodent activity in a café.

Staff’s lack of personal hygiene, handling cash and then proceeding to handle food without washing their hands, and no hot water for handwashing were some of the common themes, while the smell of sewage in food premises was also cited.