Ireland punches above its weight………….and why not!
As The Mole has said a number of times previously, there are couple of NTO’s in Sydney that represent pretty small destinations, but make a heap of noise and punch well above their weight!
Ireland has to be one of them and that is evidenced by the Emerald Isle having won the coveted and prestigious Flight Centre Global Gathering taking place in Dublin in July this year.
Having beaten illustrious and highly qualified competitors, Hong, Kong, Paris and Singapore, Dublin and Tourism Ireland won hands down with the Flight Centre team highly impressed by the facilities Dublin was able to offer the group and although they would have preferred being in one hotel, the proximity of the five key hotels in Dublin’s compact city centre being perfect for this highly prestigious event, which was last held in Las Vegas!
Over 1,600 Flight Centre key achiever travel agents will be attending, 900 from Australia, 100 from New Zealand, 100 from South Afric and the balance from other countries where Flight Centre has offices, including the UK, China and India.
Orla Saul Marketing Manager Australasia for Tourism Ireland told The Mole, “Of course, we are delighted to have won this amazing event which all came about because of a meeting with Flight Centre a few years ago when we expressed our interest and really worked hard on it from there…..then lo and behold they asked us to bid for it and we won, beating some pretty impressive competition!”
“We have a massive amount of things happening around the event including a huge gala event and we are working very closely indeed with Flight Centre, their event management company CiEvents represented here at AIME by Nigel Cottingham and also Ireland based management company Ovation Group, also here at AIME represented by Catherine Bodley. [Orla far right, is pictured with Nigel and Catherine]
“Of course what we also hope for in addition to delegates experiencing all the amazing and glittering Gathering events in Dublin is that they will stay on and see even more of Ireland so what have a great deal planned in that area too, including fam trips discount booklets, extension of stay programmes and so forth!”
“We are also experiencing tremendous support from our partners and in particular the airlines, as we will be flying delegates every possible way we can to get there!”
“The event makes a great deal of sense for us and Flight Centre, because Ireland is now the 6th most desired destination for Aussies and Kiwis, with 170,000 visiting Ireland last year.”
“Also, Ireland’s economic strength shows that we are a good place to do business and at the ned of the day, the Flight Centre Gathering is about recognising business execllence and where better to do that than in a leading European business success story capital.”
A special AIME report by The Mole
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