Local tourism industry braced for a challenging year

Fáilte Ireland in the East Coast and Midlands has emphasised that while the coming year will be a challenging one, there is still everything to play for in the tourism market in 2009.Fáilte Ireland, the authority responsible for developing tourism in the region and Tourism Ireland, the agency responsible for promoting the island of Ireland overseas, met with tourism industry members from the area, including Westmeath, on Friday last to outline plans for developing and promoting tourism in the region in the year ahead.While it was accepted that performance dipped significantly during 2008 and that this year would be tough, Fáilte Ireland nevertheless stressed that there were still opportunities and potential to be realised by many businesses. In recognition of this, Fáilte Ireland would be intensifying its marketing of holidays at home, expanding its direct business supports and maximising the effect of its capital investment in tourism infrastructure throughout 2009.Mr Shaun Quinn, CEO of Fáilte Ireland today pointed out that: 'Despite the downturn, people are going to take holidays and there is still a great deal to play for in the tourism market here in the East Coast and Midlands - with particular potential in the home market this year.'Fortunately, we now have a much improved tourism product that offers demanding visitors a better experience than ever before. By supporting individual businesses and preserving the strengths of the industry, we will be in a good position to recover our numbers as the global crisis alleviates. 'Consequently, Fáilte Ireland, will be working with tourism businesses to help them achieve sustainability in the short-term and greater competitiveness in the long-term.'The General Manager for Fáilte Ireland in the East Coast and Midlands, Mr Kevin Kidney, outlined the tourism authority"s plans for the region in the year ahead and said that Fáilte Ireland intended to promote festivals and events in the Lakelands to attract greater numbers of visitors to the region. These will include a number of music festivals, walking festivals and angling competitions. There are also plans to promote the cycling, angling and walking hubs in the Lakelands region that were funded in 2008 through the National Development Plan Infrastructure Fund in partnership with the Local Authorities.