St. Patrick’s Day usually marks the start of the Irish tourism season, but again unfortunately this year, we were unable to celebrate our national holiday in the same way that we enjoyed before COVID-19 struck. A variety of challenges for our industry come with this but I would like to assure you that we, in Fáilte Ireland, continue to focus on what we can do to support you to survive in this challenging environment. On March 8, phase one of the €55m Tourism Business Continuity Scheme closed. We are evaluating applications as quickly as possible and grant payments to eligible applicants have already commenced. In parallel, we are currently finalising the development of the next phase of this scheme, which will focus on supporting internal strategic tourism transport providers to access financial support to contribute to their fixed costs. We are on track to launch this phase very shortly.
We continue to add to the range of practical business and employee wellbeing supports available to you and your employees on our COVID-19 Business Support Hub which I encourage you to access. In recent weeks, we have added two new practical supports to help food operators run a more successful food operation – the ‘Inside food’ podcast series and a new Breakfast Innovation Toolkit.
As we look ahead, please be assured that Fáilte Ireland remains focussed on helping businesses promote Ireland as a destination. Meitheal, our largest tourism trade event, takes place next month, virtually of course. I want to thank those 500+ Irish businesses that have registered. There are over 230 international buyers attending Meitheal and the meetings taking place at this event will go a long way to maintaining Ireland’s strong brand appeal for when it is safe for international travel to return.
Please read the full newsletter to hear more about our work supporting the sector during this difficult time and subscribe now to receive monthly updates.
Paul Kelly,
CEO, Fáilte Ireland
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