Ireland’s Ancient East to target food and drink lovers

FÁILTE Ireland has launched ‘Ireland’s Ancient East – A Guide for Food and Drink Visitor Experiences’ for food businesses in Louth who wish to diversify into tourism in Ireland’s Ancient East. The guide will provide businesses with the tools to help give visitors an unforgettable experience by sharing the great stories of our food and place, the history and ingredients. A number of local enterprises attended the launch last week which included a workshop facilitated by Tina O’Dwyer, professional trainer who specialises in food tourism with a highly pragmatic and results-driven approach to professional development. This two-phase training and support pilot programme will provide mentoring, sales training and help with promoting and selling to increase sales and revenue growth for their business RESEARCH has shown that while there are strong foodbased visitor experiences available in the region, some are not aligned to local history of the Ireland’s Ancient East brand. Fáilte Ireland wishes to address this gap by implementing a programme to deliver an excellent food experience to the visitor based on place and past. SPEAKING about the new programme of training, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Ireland’s Ancient East, Jenny De Saulles explained: ‘Everyone has a role to play in delivering the best possible visitor experience and Fáilte Ireland are delighted to support the development and delivery of the food and drink visitor experience in Ireland’s Ancient East. In essence, our purpose is to make Ireland’s Ancient East the most engaging, enjoyable and accessible cultural holiday experience in Europe, by their very nature food and drink are among the most engaging and enjoyable of all.’

FOOD tourism is already part of the offering in this corner of Ireland’s Ancient East and the guide features the Carlingford Oyster Festival, Listoke Distillery and the Boyne Valley Food Series.