Irish PM Talks To The Trade

Ireland’s new Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar led a high profile delegation of trade and tourism officials on a 3-day visit to Canada this week.

Prime Minister Varadkar was in the country at the invitation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the two leaders took time to march in Montreal’s Gay Pride Parade as well as meet for discussions on a range of topics of significance to the two nations.

While it was not the Irish Prime Minister’s first visit to Canada – Varadkar had been here before on both personal trips and in his role as Ireland’s minister of transport, tourism and sport which he held from 2011 to 2014 – it was his first official visit in his new role, in fact, Canada was his first official international visit as Ireland’s prime minister.

Along with meetings with Canadian business and trade executives, Prime Minister Varadkar also led a high-profile delegation of Irish tourism officials that included Tourism Ireland’s CEO, Niall Gibbons and its Head of North America, Alison Metcalfe for meetings in Toronto with a select group of key tour operators and airlines.

Prime Minister Varadkar sat down with about 35 travel trade types for a working lunch in Toronto yesterday afternoon, telling them that their work with Tourism Ireland had created a tourism boom between Canada and the Emerald Isle.

But the Irish Prime Minister also made it clear that that success wouldn’t lead Ireland to become complacent and during the luncheon at Toronto’s Park Hyatt Hotel, he listened to observations and suggestions from operators and airline executives on some of the things that Ireland needed to do in order to make sure that tourism growth from Canada continued.

Key suggestions included the need for additional hotel rooms in order to meet the increasing demand – something that Irish tourism officials on hand indicated was being addressed – and air access to other points in Ireland beyond Dublin.

So just how good are things for Irish tourism these days?

Well, in a conversation with Tourism Ireland CEO, Niall Gibbons prior to the luncheon, he told Press Today that in 2016 Canadian visits rose by 11%, to a total of 200,000 arrivals, noting that that growth was being driven by increased air access – there are now 33 flights per week between the two countries – couple with Tourism Ireland’s committed investment strategy in this market and ongoing product development.

Watch for more on this story in an upcoming issue of Canadian Travel Press.

Seen in the photo (above): Metcalfe, Varadkar and Gibbons.