Taste the Island

A celebration of Ireland’s food and drink

Fáilte Ireland is inviting businesses and individuals interested in providing tourists with a food or drink experience to attend workshops in their local area and find out how they can get involved in their new initiative – ‘Taste the Island – a celebration of Ireland’s food and drink’, which takes place this Autumn.

The new initiative has been developed in response to the growing global interest in food and drink by Fáilte Ireland, in collaboration with Tourism Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland and a range of stakeholders.

Taste the Island will showcase Ireland’s world-class food and drink culture across the island of Ireland, from September to November, to provide visitors with access to authentic food and drink experiences, high quality local ingredients and world class Irish food and drink produce. The extensive programme, running over three-months, will seek to create an awareness and renewed appreciation at home and abroad, of the strength and richness of Ireland’s cuisine today.

Workshops are currently being rolled out throughout the country, from Donegal to Limerick and from Athlone to Dingle, to inform the local food and drink industry about this exciting initiative for food and drink providers. The workshops have been organised for the industry to learn more and provide them with the opportunity to shape the development of a programme of events and experiences for 2019.

Martina Kerr Bromley, Fáilte Ireland’s Head of Enterprise Development, said: “We are urging people in the food and drink industry throughout Ireland to get involved and participate in our upcoming workshops in your area (see workshop schedule below). The programme of events for ‘Taste the Island’, will include visits to food producers, distillers and brewers; food trails, food festivals, participation in traditional skills, opportunities to forage, traditional pubs, small-town cafés, restaurants, city bistros and Michelin-starred experiences.

“We know that our food and drink experiences are world class, now, we want everyone else to know too.”

This initiative supports Fáilte Ireland’s strategic imperative to address seasonality and grow revenue by driving increasing bed nights outside of the summer season, while also driving visitors to explore lesser-known locations across the country and will, in the long term, enhance Ireland’s international food and drink reputation, before they get here.

Commenting on the initiative Tracey Coughlan, Fáilte Ireland’s Food Strategy Manager, noted: “We’ve done the research and know that in order to respond to the rapid growth in travel today and increasing visitor expectations around food and drink, an initiative of scale is required to maximise our full potential in all areas. The international competition is intense, if we want to ensure that the tourism industry capitalises fully, this initiative will have to grow on a sustained annual basis.”