For the second year in a row, and due to Covid 19 regulations, Dundalk Chamber held their annual Cross Border Tourism Conference on-line. This is the 15th year for the Chamber to run this conference. Over 230 delegates from all over Ireland tuned in, to the event to hear from world class speakers who are experts in the field of tourism activity. The conference entitled ‘Learn from the Best’ was organized by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce and was sponsored by the Louth Leader Partnership, Local Enterprise Office Louth, Louth County Council and The Marshes Shopping Centre.
The online conference gave attendee’s practical tips on how to improve their tourism offerings, and so help increase visitor numbers and visitor spend within their particular tourism demesne. Mr Kieran Swail of the Southern Regional College Newry, was master of ceremonies ,and co-ordinated the event with true professionalism,
Wayne Denner of ‘WayneDenner.com’ hosted a workshop on “Visibility through video- using videos to connect with visitors”. Wayne highlighted that by the end of 2021 82% of all consumer web traffic will be video and reminded everyone of the significance of asking visitors to create their own video testimonials of their stay.
Aoife Porter of Bua Marketing shared “Top Tips for Great Destination Marketing Campaigns” noting how important it is to have a visitor campaign which is not solely beneficial to tourism businesses, but one that benefits the local community.
Seamus Heaney of Pure Cork talked about “The Visit Cork Story and the Pure Cork Brand”. This year Pure Cork has developed a new visitor app with a “What’s near me function”.
Pól Ó Conghaile, Travel Editor with the Irish Independent discussed “Travel after Covid-19, 10 trends for a post pandemic world”. In a recent TripAdvisor survey 65% of respondents stated that would be avoiding crowds when choosing a holiday break. There is now a great opportunity for self -catering providers to offer local food & drink boxes on arrival.
The conference proved a wonderful success and Dundalk Chamber are already making plans for next year’s conference, which hopefully will be a live event.
President of Dundalk Chamber Sean Farrell was delighted with the superb line up of speakers who told their wonderful stories and encouraged tourism providers to visit https://dundalk.ie for updates on future chamber events or contact Brenda on 042 9336343 or email brenda@dundalk.ie.
You can download the all presentations from the conference here.
Attachments
- Press release Tourism Conference 2021 (pdf/47 KB)
