Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications
Tourism Industry Market Strategies: Discussion with Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Irish Hotels Federation
11:05 am
Ms Monica MacLaverty:
From the The Gathering perspective and to address the question on the regionality and seasonality of tourism, if we take ourselves back 12 months when we realised that access from the US was down 25% from 2007, when figures were at their peak, we realised we needed to do something to achieve our ambitious targets for The Gathering. That was at a time when we had no events lined up for The Gathering. There was no calendar of events for The Gathering throughout the year. We were working with the Dublin Airport Authority and with the airlines to build a robust business case to present the opportunity to them that we were increasing business for Ireland and that there would be increased demand. The positives they took from it was that The Gathering would - it is delivering on this - extend the season. It is sustaining the tourism proposition during the shoulder season. That was what was interesting for the airlines rather than having two or three headline events during the peak season.
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