Vaccine is ‘Hope on the Horizon’
Tourism Ireland is now looking to the second half of 2021 for a possible re-opening of tourism, its ceo said yesterday.

Participating in an industry webinar attended by 500 operators and professionals, he said that vaccine ‘is the hope on the horizon’
Views on a ‘vaccine passport’ for travel are divided, he said with some concern about ‘vaccine apartheid’- exclusion of developing countries where roll-out will be slow. The EU is currently debating the issue and he said that a ‘European consensus’ would be a positive development. He also felt ‘assured’ by the Irish vaccination roll-out plan.
Plans to promote Ireland holidays in GB, originally scheduled for St. Patrick’s weekend, have been put on hold, but the world-wide ‘Greening’ project will again take place. A major promotion for NI has been postponed, but attractive publicity opportunities exist in several markets and the highly successful social media campaign will continue.
He said that Ireland had achieved a ‘best case scenario’ from the EU-UK deal on Brexit, with the common travel area intact. There will however be some changes for GB visitors to Ireland including health insurance