TOURISM TRIP: Elaine McInaw (Abbey & Central Hotels), Kerensa de Vaan (TUI), Brian Miley (The Gleneagle Group), Maddy van den Bijgaart (Echt Ierland), Karen van der Horst (Tourism Ireland), Kati Lepistš (Original Irish Hotels), and Tony Dawson (F‡áilte Ireland), at Tourism Ireland's annual trade workshop in Amsterdam.

Leading Dutch tour operators, travel agents and online travel agents attended Tourism Ireland’s annual travel trade workshop, which took place in Amsterdam last week.

Nine tourism companies from the island of Ireland – including the Gleneagle Hotel Group – took part in the workshop.

The schedule included a series of one-to-one meetings, giving the participating companies from Ireland a platform to do business for 2020 with the Dutch travel professionals. The workshop also provided Tourism Ireland with an opportunity to announce Taste the Island in the Netherlands – an exciting new all-island initiative, developed by Fáilte Ireland in conjunction with Tourism Ireland and Tourism NI, involving more than 500 food and drink-related experiences over 59 days.

Deputy Head of Mission, Robert Jackson, was in attendance to welcome the guests.

“We were delighted that these important Dutch travel agents and tour operators took the time to meet with our partners from Kerry and Ireland, to learn about our superb tourism offering and to encourage them to extend the Ireland content of their existing programmes and itineraries, or to include the island of Ireland for the first time in their 2020 programmes,” Karen van der Horst, Tourism Ireland’s Manager in the Netherlands, said.

“The Netherlands is an important market for tourism to the island of Ireland. In 2018, we welcomed almost 247,000 Dutch visitors. Tourism Ireland is rolling out an extensive programme of promotions in the Netherlands this autumn, to encourage more Dutch holidaymakers to explore our regions and less-visited attractions, during the shoulder and off-season months.”