City North are ready for all the Chinese visitors to Ireland

THE first graduates of Fáilte Ireland’s China Ready Programme - aimed at ensuring Irish tourism businesses are prepared for growing numbers of Chinese visitors - were presented with their certificates at a ceremony in Fáilte Ireland’s Dublin HQ.

The Programme is aimed at educating Irish tourism businesses about the opportunities available from the Chinese tourist market and is part of Fáilte Ireland’s work to assist tourism businesses to diversify their market mix and reduce the risks currently posed by Brexit.

The Programme is being run by Fáilte Ireland in cooperation with Tourism Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland.

Presenting CityNorth Hotel with their certificate, Paul Keeley, Director of Commercial Development at Fáilte Ireland said that the Irish tourism industry was gearing up to ‘Get China Ready’ in anticipation of the first direct flights from China starting in June 2018.

He emphasised: “China is one of the fastestoutbound travel markets in the world with numbers predicted to grow to 200 million by 2020. The aim of the ‘China Ready Programme’ is to ensure that the Chinese visitor is warmly welcomed to Ireland and that tourism businesses are prepared.’