The 30th annual Ireland Travel Trade Workshop opened in Dublin today amid predictions that 2004 was shaping up to be a record year for Irish tourism.
Around €800m of trade will be conducted at the workshop over the next two days as 300 overseas tour operators from 31 countries meet more than 500 Irish product providers.
Failte Ireland Chief Executive Shaun Quinn said that while most of the business being conducted at the workshop would not impact on the Irish market until 2005, the tourism industry was upbeat about tourism prospects for this year.
He said that recent figures from the Central Statistics Office show overseas visitor numbers were up over 10% on the same two month period last year. A Failte Ireland Hotel Survey also shows an 8% increase in bednights for the first quarter of 2004, for home and overseas visitors.
Paul O'Toole, the Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, - which markets the island of Ireland overseas - is confident that tourism to Ireland will continue its recovery in 2004. He said that continental Europe and the US reported particularly strong bookings in the first three months and continue to look more positive than last year.
He also said that there is good news on the air access front, with significantly increased summer capacity to Ireland, up overall by about 8% on last year.
A total of 6.2 million overseas visitors came to Ireland in 2003, an increase of 5% on 2002. Tourism is Ireland's third largest industry and is worth about €5 billion the economy annually.
