Bringing them all back home tourism drive to double

A MAJOR tourism initiative to entice the Irish diaspora to visit home is set to be expanded next year.

Fáilte Ireland says the Global Irish Festival Series, which was piloted along the Wild Atlantic Way in October, will double in size in 2019 with the aim of expanding it to every county in the next four years.

A joint initiative between the tourism body and the Department of Foreign Affairs, it aims to encourage the diaspora to reconnect with Ireland by attending festivals in their home counties.

Product development director Orla Carroll said the series offers the perfect reason to visit home. ‘The idea, in a way, is building on from The Gathering,’ she added. ‘We’re such a lucky country to have such a diaspora who connect to Ireland.

‘Seventy million people.. it’s about recognising what we have and looking at how we can keep that motivation going.”

The first Global Irish festivals were held in October in Limerick and Donegal to help drive off-peak tourism and were funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs to the tune of €210,000.

Next year, funding will be provided to festivals in four counties with a different flavour in each.

In 2017, more than 200,000 overseas visitors attended festivals in Ireland generating €108million to the economy.