Tourism companies from around the island of Ireland – including 23 companies from Northern Ireland – attended Flavours of Ireland 2023 in London. ‘Flavours’ is Tourism Ireland’s annual B2B tourism workshop, where tourism companies from Northern Ireland meet and do business with top global inbound tour operators.
Now in its 21st year, ‘Flavours’ was held in Guildhall, in the City of London, and was attended by around 100 top global inbound tour operators – who’re mainly based in London and who deliver business from all over the world, including the United States, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.
‘Flavours’ provides an excellent opportunity for the participating tourism providers from Northern Ireland to highlight and sell their tourism product and build valuable relationships with the global inbound buyers in attendance. The global operators are preparing to sign contracts for 2024 and beyond, so it’s a key time to influence the addition of new tourism products to their programmes that have the potential to deliver more regional and longer-stay business for the island of Ireland.
David Boyce, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Global Inbound, said: “Tourism Ireland is delighted that so many tourism organisations from Northern Ireland and so many leading global inbound tour operators took the time to join us at our annual ‘Flavours of Ireland’ event.
“In 2019, these tour operators were responsible for delivering around 5 million bed-nights to the island of Ireland. As they prepare to sign contracts for 2024, we very much welcome the business and networking opportunities our workshop presented. Our aim is to increase awareness of Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland among these influential global inbound tour operators and to help our tourism partners secure a greater share of the huge worldwide tourism market.”
