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€500,000 for Careers Campaign

Fáilte Ireland is to fund a €500,000 campaign promoting tourism careers to help increase the awareness of students and their parents about the varied and viable career fitrio1119

opportunities in tourism. This campaign will help to attract the volume and quality of talent required to sustain growth.

A digital hub will be created that will act as a one stop shop for information on courses and careers in Tourism and Hospitality.

Jenny De Saulles, head of the newly-created Sectoral Development Directorate said :

‘Our plans are about building an Ireland where every part of the country is included and the natural inclination of our people to welcome others is translated into jobs and opportunities’.

Fáilte Ireland plans massive industry support

‘Fáilte Ireland’s focus next year is on helping to sustain and support the tourism industry region by region’, its ceo Paul Kelly has said. kelly11119

He was speaking at a gathering of 600 industry stakeholders in Croke Park where Fáilte Ireland unveiled its 2020 work plans.

‘In 2020, through the Government’s Project Ireland 2040 programme, we will be investing over €12 million to develop new and improved visitor attractions and activities for our visitors. There is a quiet transformation underway in the experiences we offer our visitors and in 2020, we will see a further 25 enhanced attractions open. Through a €6million targeted domestic and Northern Ireland marketing campaign using world class creatives, we will be telling all the people on our island about these great experiences through our new 2020 home holidays campaign called ‘Keep Discovering’.”

Gala Dinner Venues Needed

Ireland needs more large Gala Dinner venues, Paul Kelly, ceo of Fáilte Ireland has said.

They are required to provide a facility and variety for conference visitors in particular.

Me Kelly said that Ireland is also losing conference business because organisers cannot source the required blocks of rooms in conveniently-located hotels at certain times.

One or more large hotels, capable of accommodating delegates to major conferences are also needed, he said.

Hotels sign Sustainability Pact

A total of 22 hotels in Killarney have signed a novel sustainability charter as a core principle of their business with an initial aim of cutting their carbon emissions by 25 per cent. killarneypk1119

The pact, the first of its kind in the hotel industry in Ireland, is aimed at the implementation and operation of a single use plastic free environment in their respective businesses which account for 2,500 of the 3,500 hotel bedrooms in the town.

The collaboration was officially launched by Minister of State for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin, prior to the annual National Tourism Forum Let’s Talk Tourism conference in Killarney at the weekend.

The aim of the group is not only to reduce carbon emissions but to share best

practice when it comes to sustainability. The hotels involved have individually and collectively set about reducing and eliminating single use plastic from their businesses and they anticipate that, going forward, several other hotels will sign up to the pact.

'Living Beyond Our Means'

Globally, Ireland is living way beyond its means and it has missed its climate targets three years in a row, the Let’s Talk Tourism forum heard.

The country exceeds its annual emissions target by five million tonnes and the household carbon footprint is up eight per cent, AIB Group Sustainability Office Head, Sarah Dempsey, told delegates.

In terms of biocapacity consumed, Ireland’s figure in 1961 was 74%, it had risen to 118% but by 1985 and it stood at 172% in 2018.