This article is from page 2 of the 2011-11-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
CLARE has become the first county in Ireland to go to Britain and market itself directly to the Irish diaspora abroad.
More than 2,000 new UK tourist are expected to travel to Clare over the next two years, generating an estimated € 1 million for the county, following the London to Clare event which took place last week.
The event was organised by the Clare Tourism Forum who invited special guests such as Killaloe native Keith Woods along to help promote the county. Despite an estimated 10 per cent year-on-year growth of tourism to the area, the UK market remained sluggish in 2011 with the majority of the revival coming from American, French and German travellers.
The event was organised to coincide with World Travel Market, one of the world’s largest conferences of tour operators held in London each year. According to Maureen Cleary of the Clare Tourism Network, this groundbreaking event could be replicated in other parts of the world.
“We decided to host our own event in London at the same time as the world market and focus both on the tour operators but also on the diaspora over there,” she said.
“Clare was the only county who was out there marketing itself in this way. We feel that London is the perfect starting point for this sort of project. We have at least three flights each day from Shannon to London, it is an English speaking destination so it made sense to use London as the first trial run for this. We hope to do more of this in other locations, it was very successful trial and we are looking to go further afield with this sort of event next year.”
It is hoped that by taking a co-operative approach to marketing the county will show both tour operators and members of the Irish diaspora that Clare has much to offer for a long-stay holiday.
“Clare has so much to offer so it makes sense that we would partner up and run an event like this together. People are not going to come to Clare for one experience – we need to sell the county as a package of different attractions and a place where people can come and visit for a number of days,” continued Maureen.
“Clare has changed a lot in recent years – there are a lot new products in Clare. The diaspora know Clare as home and they might know of Bunratty and the Cliffs, but they might not be aware of all of these new products that we have in Clare – everything from the new walking and cycling routes in Clare to the festivals which are happening nearly every weekend in Clare.”