The Annual Chamber Tourism and Hospitality Breakfast was held this morning in Palmerstown House. This year the guest speaker to address the sector was John Concannon, Director of 1916. Prior to Ireland 2016, John was director of Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority. He was selected as Irish “Marketer of the Year” in 2011 for his work marketing Ireland, and was nominated again in 2013 as the Creator of “The Gathering Ireland 2013.
During his address, he discussed the achievements of the year to date with regards to the State’s Centenary Programme to Commemorate 1916 and also his involvement in the Gathering and Discover Ireland.
The breakfast was attended by an array of key stakeholders in the Tourism and Hospitality sector that included The K Club, Kildare Village, The Osprey Hotel and The Cliff at Lyons.
John urged the Kildare Tourism and Hospitality sector to “Collaborate and work together to promote the county in a unified approach”.
Allan Shine, CEO of the Chamber said, “The sector is on a crest of a wave at the moment, the retention of the VAT rate in last week’s budget is crucial to the sector and is very welcomed. Hotel room occupancy is above industry norm this year and all our members are reporting excellent figures. Our guest speaker this morning was both very interesting and also thought provoking in what he said.