Tourism operators in Limerick city and county will be taking a lead role in putting together new holiday packages designed to give the region extra drawing power in 2008.

At last week’s Entrepreneur Showcase hosted by the Enterprise Acceleration Unit at the Limerick Institute of Technology were, from left: guest speaker Jerry Kennelly, formerly of Stockbyte; Dr Maria Hinfelaar, Director LIT; and Damian Young, Head of Small Business Segment, Bank of Ireland (speaker). Picture: Kieran Clancy / PicSure

Teams are being set up this week by the Tourism Learning Network and the Limerick team will have responsibility for activity breaks suited for the active older age group who take multiple midweek breaks and favour special concessions.

“Our Limerick team will be developing these packages for the entire region, but also putting together other packages and promotional materials specifically for Limerick,” said Padraig Cleary of Mayday Management Consultants- the company that manages the Tourism Learning Network for Failte Ireland.

“By setting each team a mission of drawing up packages for their own county and also for the region, the idea is to get the entire group to think local and also think regional,” he added.
For the Limerick area, the local team will work on a range of activity breaks aimed at small groups such as sport and social clubs while a counterpart team in Clare will work on similar packages focused on the attractions and facilities of the entire region.

This week’s formation of teams and tasks is in preparation for the next six months as the holiday packages are set for launch at the start of the 2008 holiday season around Easter or St Patrick’s Day.

“To bring new thinking and add new product appeal to the Irish market, Failte Ireland is making innovation a top priority. By introducing an innovation programme for the Mid West now, participants will have completed the step by step series right up to testing with feasibility studies and putting business plans together before the start of the 2008 season proper,” Mr Cleary said.

Planning for the forthcoming season has extra significance because of the possible effects of the discontinuation of the Aer Lingus Shannon to Heathrow routes in January 2008.

Several large scale projects at hotels and facilities in Clare have been put on hold because of the continuing uncertainty about regional connectivity as operators, authorities and pressure groups continue to campaign for replacement routes and Government action.

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