New All-Island Initiative to Enhance Donegal’s Reputation for Food and Drink

New All-Island Initiative to Enhance Donegal’s Reputation for Food and Drink

Taste the Island – a celebration of Ireland’s food and drink

“We are creating some of the most exciting food and drink stories ever experienced on this Island and our ambition is to bring Ireland’s food story to the world.”

Nearly fifty businesses and individuals from Donegal today attended Fáilte Ireland’s Taste the Island workshop in Harvey’s Point.  This is part of a series of workshops taking place across Ireland over the next number of weeks to develop a strong programme of food and drink experiences that can be included in the Taste the Island initiative. A number of promotional videos were created for the workshop and can be viewed HERE.

Globally, Ireland is known as a nation with a vibrant culture with green fields and pristine waters together with a mild wet climate which gives us bountiful, sustainable and high-quality food produce. To enhance this reputation and to secure a greater reputation for Ireland in 2020 and beyond, a new all-island
initiative – ‘Taste the Island – a celebration of Ireland’s food and drink’ has been developed by Fáilte Ireland, in collaboration with Tourism Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland and a range of stakeholders.

The new initiative, Taste the Island, will showcase Ireland’s world-class food and drink culture across the island of Ireland from September to November by providing visitors with access to authentic food and drink experiences, high quality local ingredients and world class Irish food and drink produce.  In 2018 food and drink consumption accounted for around €2.6bn, or 35% of visitor spend and this expensive programme will seek to create an awareness and renewed appreciation at home and abroad of the strength and richness of Ireland’s food culture today.

Commenting at the Donegal workshop Tracey Coughlan, Fáilte Ireland’s Food Tourism - Strategy and Programmes Manager, commented:

“The range and quality of food and drink experiences that we met in Donegal today are really world class and have the potential to drive a lot more tourists to this area. We know that there is scope for growth around food and drink for tourists and aligned with our world-famous seascapes and landscapes, in particular in the Donegal area, we have an incredibly strong offering to motivate tourists to visit here.

Taste the Island is designed to showcase Ireland’s fantastic food and drink across September, October and November and I look forward to seeing some really strong ideas coming out of today’s workshop. What’s really important now is that people submit their proposals outlining what they are going to do for Taste the Island for what’s shaping up to be chock full season of food festivals and events all showcasing our world class produce.

Noel Cunningham, Harvey's Point commented:

"Harvey's Pont are delighted to be the first to host this increadible initiative from Fáilte Ireland .  Taste the Island is a timely initiatibve for the industry to grasp the opportunity of innocation and firmly establish Ireland as a food destination that can complete with anywhere in the world."


To kickstart the new and exciting initiative, Fáilte Ireland have invited businesses and individuals interested in providing tourists with a food or drink experience to attend workshops in their local area.  Today’s workshop which takes place in Harvey’s Point in Donegal is the first of eighteen workshops for the industry to learn more and provide them with the opportunity to shape the development of a programme of events and experiences for 2019.

Ms Coughlan continued:

This initiative supports Fáilte Ireland’s strategic imperative to address seasonality and grow revenue by driving increasing bed nights outside of the summer season while also driving visitors to explore lesser-known locations across the country and will, in the long term, enhance Ireland, and indeed Donegal’s international food and drink reputation before they get here.”

A new Toolkit guide on how the industry can deliver and maximise the opportunities in food and drink tourism, including a step by step guide for their business built around these 5 pillars:

• Taste – pubs, restaurants, cafes, hotels- everywhere you can taste out fantastic food and drink
• Meet the maker – our passionate and innovative food producers
• Make it yourself – our wonderful interactive food experiences, cookery schools and educational facilities
• Trail/Networks – over 30 trails or clusters of businesses working together to enhance the visitor’s food and drink   experience all over the country
• Festivals and Events – We are building a programme full of festivals and events throughout the Taste the Island from September to November 2019

Follow us on Twitter @Fáilte_Ireland

Workshop Details:
DATE TIME COUNTY LOCATION
Tuesday 7th May 9.30 – 2pm Donegal Harvey’s Point
Wednesday 8th May 8.00 – 11am Dublin Croke Park
Thursday 9th May 9.30 – 2pm Mayo Breaffy House Hotel
Monday 13th May 9.30 – 2pm Meath Headfort Arms Hotel
Tuesday 14th May 9.30 – 2pm Limerick The Strand Hotel
Wednesday 15th May 9.30 – 2pm West Cork Celtic Ross Hotel
Thursday 16th May 9.30 – 2pm Kerry Great Southern Hotel
Monday 20th May 9.30 – 2pm Cork City The River Lee Hotel
Tuesday 21st May 9.30 – 2pm Waterford Faithlegg Hotel
Wednesday 22nd May 9.30 – 2pm Kilkenny Newpark Hotel
Thursday 23rd May 9.30 – 2pm Carlow Woodford Dolmen Hotel
Tuesday 28th May 9.30 – 2pm Clare Hotel Doolin
Wednesday 29th May 9.30 – 2pm Sligo Radisson Blu
Thursday 30th May 9.30 – 2pm Galway The Twelve Hotel
Thursday June 6th 9.30 – 2pm Carraig-on-Shannon Kilronan Castle, Roscommon
Tuesday 11th June 9.30 – 2pm Athlone Dead Centre Brewing
Thursday 13th June 9.30 – 2pm Lough Derg The Lakeside Hotel, Killaloe

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