Sports Tourism Update…
Sport to Feature on New Task Force..
Sport is to be represented by Cormac O’Donnchú (pictured above left), founder of Experience Gaelic Games on a new Tourism Leadership Group announced my Minister Paschal Donohoe in Killarney yesterday.
The group is to implement the objectives set out in the tourism policy document ‘People, Place & Policy; Growing Tourism to 2025’ which was launched in March.
In the shorter term the Group will be tasked with drawing up a Tourism Action Plan for the period up to 2018.
“We have set ambitious targets to grow overseas visitor revenue to €5 billion per year by 2025 (net of inflation), to grow tourism employment from 200,000 to 250,000 and to increase overseas visits from 7.6 million in 2014 to 10 million by 2025, said Minister Donohoe.
“The policy statement sets out 51 policy objectives that are necessary to achieve these targets.”
The Group will be chaired by Minister Donohoe and also includes representatives from the tourism industry, the Local Authority sector, and others with particular expertise in areas, such as community tourism development, travel technology, and tourism retailing, as well as the tourism agencies and the Minister’s Department.
The Tourism Leadership Group is now to hold an intensive series of meetings with key tourism stakeholders over the coming months. It will be supported by a secretariat provided by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport who will also engage in additional meetings with a range of public and private bodies on matters of significance to tourism, and report back to the main group.
It is expected that the Tourism Action Plan will be published within six months.
In order to facilitate as wide a discussion on this important area as possible Sport for Business will host a Members’ Round Table in September to explore effective ways that Sport can feature as prominently as possible within this context.
Invitations to those we believe can make a difference will be sent out next week. If you would like to be included in this group please contact us today to get involved.
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Milton Keynes Forecasts £56 Million Boost from Rugby World Cup
The City of Milton Keynes is not on many regular tourism itineraries but local sources are expecting 25,000 overseas visitors among the 90,000 that will attend the three games it is hosting in the Rugby World Cup in September.
That will amount to a boost for the local economy estimated to be in the region of #56 million according to an interview in the latest edition of Running Rugby, and is a sign of where the real local value might yet lie in a successful Irish bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup in venues across the country.
Sport for Business’ Coverage and support for Sports Tourism is in partnership with Aer Lingus. Find out how we can help tourism organisations build business through sport.
