Abbey Court Hotel targets German tourists for Ireland at B2B workshop in Offenbach
Irish tourism companies travelled to Offenbach, near Frankfurt, this week – to take part in a B2B workshop and networking event with leading German tour operators. The event was organised by Tourism Ireland, in a bid to grow visitor numbers from Germany, our third-largest tourism market, in 2015 and beyond.
The Irish delegation – which included Matthias Muller of the Great National Abbey Court Hotel – met with 21 German and three Austrian tour operators, in a bid to convince the influential travel professionals in attendance to include Ireland in their holiday programmes for 2015. Given that travel agents and tour operators continue to be the main 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.
(front, l-r) Chris Ruebel, Tourism Ireland; Siobhán Hassett, Treacys West County Hotel, Ennis; Mailin Bollhöfner, Travelling Britain; Svea Förster, Studiosus Reisen; Martina Wirtz, CIE Tours International; Marie Slattery, Shannon Group; and (back, l-r) Matthias Muller, Great National Abbey Court Hotel; Claudia Hofbauer, STA Travel; and Eugene Maher, ShannonFerry Group, attending Tourism Ireland’s B2B workshop and networking event in Offenbach.
Zoë Redmond, Tourism Ireland’s manager for Central Europe, said: “Germany is our third-largest source of visitors and 2014 looks set to be another record year for German visitor numbers to Ireland. Right now, we are planning a busy programme of promotions for 2015, to keep the momentum growing and build on this year’s growth. Our workshop in Offenbach this week provided an excellent platform to kickstart our promotional effort for 2015 and to highlight the many things to see and do on a holiday in Ireland to influential German and Austrian tour operators.”
According to the latest CSO figures, visitor numbers from Germany have increased by +16% for January to September this year, an additional 62,000 German visitors compared with the same nine-month period in 2013.
