Travel Industry’s United Nation looks at Ireland
Just off their respective flights, members of a small but dynamic famil group have just enough time to change from their travel clothes and head west from Dublin.
The group, representing Australia, Sweden, Finland, India, Thailand, Scotland, England, Germany, Poland and Spain are all in Ireland for a week of networking and workshops.
Travelling through several of Ireland’s 38 counties, they head off to Galway along an impossibly green trek that leads to the Connemara Coast Hotel – a charming accommodation house resting on the shores of Galway Bay.
The travel industry has an amazing ability to bond total strangers in a common purpose within minutes, with conversations flowing freely, jokes shared and professional relationships formed – all in a bus!
There is an instant dynamic created with this group…………..there are no language barriers, everyone speaks English – which continues to make me feel guilty and inadequate.
There is certainly a mix of cultures but they blend perfectly.
[Pictured right, The UN of Travel]
With a collision of foreign accents (they’re all foreign – they’re all foreigners) the conversations in the bus sounds like an international choir led by Hal the accomplished choirmaster and Irish tour guide.
The common denominator is of course, travel and the common purpose is to discover Ireland, with each having their own reason to be here and each will take back something different.
“I’ll put a group in here” says Mamta Shar from Sanskruti in India as we inspect the rooms of Moycarn Lodge on the Shannon River in the dead centre of Ireland, “This will be perfect for my clients” she continues, reboarding the bus armed with an armful of brochures. Already Mamta has made a discovery.
Lorna Bannister, a director of DA Tours in Fife, Scotland is also on a fact finding mission says “This is perfect timing as I’m in the process of putting tours to Galway, it’s one of the most recognisable destinations in Ireland and we’re getting a lot of demand for it,” walking around the grounds of Finnstown Country House Hotel.
But a well organised famil offers more than just an opportunity for a country to showcase their wares and participants to discover hidden treasuresm but they sew the members of the travel industry together and weave the fabric of an international club.
Successful fam trips have the participants leaving a country with a case full of brochures and first hand exposure, with each brochure representing an opportunity for both parties.
They also leave having established good relationships with every other member of the group.
Isn’t that what the United Nations is all about?
A Report by Kevin Moloney, international travel writer and Travel Mole correspondent – on location in Ireland – brought to you by Emirates, Aer Lingus, Driveaway Holidays and Tourism Ireland.
John Alwyn-Jones
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