Today’s Morning Focus was live from The Falls Hotel, Ennistymon for the 23rd annual Clare Tourism Conference. Organiser of the event Flan Garvey of the Clare Tourist Council was in studio to discuss this year’s itinerary. Joining him was Alan Aughey, Mayor of Clare and Gilbert Valleys in Australia and Michelle Moroney, Chairperson of the Clare Tourist Council who spoke about this year’s theme‘Tourism – The Potential for Economic Growth’. This Conference is the 23rd in a programme of National Conferences on Tourism issues which Clare Tourist Council in conjunction with Clare County Council are organising for the Tourism Industry, Officials and Members of Local Authorities, County Enterprise Boards, Partnerships and all Public and Private Bodies involved in the promotion of Tourism
Leo Varadkar, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport will be a guest speaker at the conference – ahead of his arrival in Ennistymon Minister Varadkar spoke to John Cooke. The Tourism Minister has insisted that Clare and the Mid-West will be well promoted to visitors at home and abroad, even if Shannon Development is no longer the agency to do it. Under public sector cutbacks announced last week, the main development agency for the Mid-West could see it’s tourism promotion functions subsumed by Failte Ireland, while its job creation role could also be in doubt once separate reviews are complete. But Minister for Transport and Tourism Leo Varadkar says changes are likely given the need for quango cutbacks, and the fact that Shannon Development no longer makes the same income from its properties in the mid west and said Failte Ireland is well placed to promote the region
Liam Conneally, Director of the Mid West Regional Authority will be speaking on ‘Collaborative Tourism- The Lough Derg Marketing Strategy Model’ as part of the conference. He joined Morning Focus to discuss the topic.
Senator Martin Conway, the Ennistymon Oireachtas member also joined the show live from The Falls Hotel – he is officially launching the event later on this evening.
Also on today’s show;
Peter Malone, Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Authority of the University of Limerick and Chairman National Roads Authority addressed his ‘Ten Ways to Improve Irish Tourism’ while speaking to Clare FM’s John Cooke. His ten points include;
• Create One Brand for Ireland
• Training, Standards and Friendliness to be Top of our Agenda
• Give Shannon Airport back to the Shannon People
• Prices are gone too high for our Tourism Product
• Sell Surfing in the West
• Full Visa for Chinese
• Market Golf
• Hi-Speed Broadband
• Global Irish Diaspora
• UK Leisure Market
Vice President of the Irish Hotels Federation Michael Vaughan, Paddy McGowan, an Omagh Councillor and Roy Beggs, a councillor from Larne discussed the need for tourism initiatives and the impact tourism has on our economy.
While Sinead O’Loughlin, Michelle Wynne and Sharon and Tara Rhynne called in to our Clare FM Cruiser in Ennistymon to talk about the All-Ireland Junior Camogie Club Final which is fixed for Ashbourne on Sunday at 2:30 pm – where the Inagh girls take on Tara of London.
If you have a comment or query for Morning Focus you can email the show at focus@clare.fm
