Shane Raftery is originally from Craughwell, County Galway, where his family’s pub is a well-known landmark. Having trained in Bar Management with CERT, Shane went on to become a CERT trainer himself, teaching Food & Beverage Skills for 20 years.
Prior to joining the Food Tourism team, Shane was a Business Development Advisor with Fáilte Ireland providing workshops and in-house training for industry for 4 years. Shane has a degree in Tourism & Hospitality Education from GMIT, where he specialized in food tourism, and Masters in Education & Training Management from DCU.
Shane believes that Ireland has huge potential for food tourism and many pockets that are already food destinations, "The role of Fáilte Ireland is to support the growth, provide the links and the tools”. The big advantage in Ireland, he believes, is that “we always have time to talk".
The Irish food experience is about simple pleasures, honest and natural, but it is just as much about the "Cead Mile Fáilte". Visitors want to meet people, hear the stories. "Irish people are natural storytellers and we need to make sure we are telling the food story as well as we can”.