Kerry firms join in German promotion

SEVERAL Kerry tourism businesses – including Killarney Hotels, Sneem Hotel, The Lake Hotel and The Gleneagle Group – travelled to Offenbach, near Frankfurt in Germany recently – to take part in a B2B workshop and networking event with leading German tour operators.

The event was organised by Tourism Ireland, to continue to grow visitor numbers from Germany – Kerry’s third-largest tourism market – in 2019.

The delegation from Ireland – which included hotels and B&Bs, visitor attractions, ferry companies and destination management companies – met with German, Swiss and Austrian tour operators, in a bid to convince the influential travel professionals in attendance to include the island of Ireland in their holiday programmes for 2019.

Given that travel agents and tour operators continue to be an important booking channel for German holidaymakers, a key element of Tourism Ireland’s strategy is to work closely with the travel trade – both online and offline – in Germany.

Zoë Redmond, Tourism Ireland’s Manager for Central Europe, said the visit has helped kick start promotional efforts for next year’s tourist season.

“Germany is our third-largest source of visitors, with the latest CSO figures showing growth of +21% for January to August. Right now, we are planning another extensive programme of promotions for 2019, to continue to build on this year’s success,” she said.

“Our workshop in Offenbach this week provided an excellent platform to kick-start our promotional effort for next year and to highlight the many things to see and do on a holiday in Ireland to influential German, Swiss and Austrian tour operators,” said Ms Redmond