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Minister at 'Green Button' US launch

Tourism Minister Catherine Martin has joine Tourism Ireland in Chicago and New York this week. She will undertake a busy programme of tourism, sporting and cultural newyork3

engagements to promote Ireland.

Minister Martin is pictured with Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America, on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, for the US launch of Tourism Ireland’s new ‘Green Button’ promotional campaign. The campaign will go live in the United States next week, to re-start tourism and encourage Americans to book Ireland for their next holiday.

This will be the first major in-person series of promotional events undertaken by Tourism Ireland in the United States, since the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of the visit is to position us well for 2022 and to create ‘stand-out’ for Ireland against competitor destinations.

Over the coming days, Minister Martin’s schedule will include:

Ireland at British Travel Show

Five tourism companies from Ireland have joined Tourism Ireland’s pavilion at the British Tourism & Travel Show this week, at the NEC in Birmingham. greenbuntton

Pictured are Brenda Byrne, Holiday Ireland Hotels; Juno Thompson, Tourism Ireland; Brian Miley, The Gleneagle Group; Jane Taylor, White Hotel Group; David Wood, Tourism Ireland; and Mary Daly, Trinity Hotel Groups, at the British Tourism & Travel Show in Birmingham.

The British Tourism & Travel Show is an annual event for the travel trade in Britain, attracting over 2,500 coach tour operators and group travel organisers.

The two-day event provides a valuable opportunity for the participating companies from Ireland to meet, and do business with, key players in the British travel trade – encouraging them to introduce Ireland into their programmes for 2022 and beyond, or to extend the programmes in which Ireland already features.

City West hotel to remain closed

The Citywest Hotel in Dublin, the largest in the country, will not be reopening to guests until 2022 due to its continuing role in the Health Service Executive effort against Covid-19.

A spokesman for the Citywest Hotel Group confirmed on Thursday that the HSE contract with the property has been extended and is now not due to expire until early 2022.

The spokesman was commenting on new accounts which show that the Citywest Hotel Group returned to operating profit last year after an initial €21 million deal with the HSE to use the hotel as a Covid-19 isolation centre.

Accommodation conversion breaches policy, says Kelly

Turning student accommodation into rooms for tourists is “contrary” to government policy at a time of an acute crisis, the Dáil has heard. alankelly0921

Labour leader Alan Kelly told Tánaiste Leo Varadkar that, in Dublin, developers of luxury student apartments are now trying to change their planning permission so they can be used as hotels for tourists.

A recent application to do the same in Cork was rejected by Cork City Council as planners were concerned it would "set an undesirable precedent" for other purpose-built student accommodation complexes.

Mr Varadkar made clear this is an issue the Government is aware of and an announcement is pending in the coming weeks.

Aer Lingus to review Dublin operations

Aer Lingus has said that its ongoing review of ground handling operations in Cork and Shannon has now been extended to include Dublin Airport. aerlingus

The airline told the union SIPTU, in a letter seen by RTÉ News, that the review will cover all areas of the Dublin operation, beginning with lounge facilities, provisioning stores, fuel and load planning.

It also warned that depending on the outcome of the review, changes could be made to resourcing.

"In the event that following the review, that some areas remain in house, consideration will be given to the grading structures and promotional practices of those areas," the airline's Executive Director of HR and Dublin Airport Operations, Séan Murphy wrote.