By Geoff Percival,Stephen Aherne
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A total of 16 top British coach and tour operators have been exploring Ireland, as guests of Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland. They were here to take part in a B2B workshop in Limerick – connecting with around 48 tourism businesses from across Ireland, to negotiate their 2026 programmes.
The tour operators had the opportunity to experience for themselves the high standard and variety of Ireland’s tourism offering in Limerick and Kerry – as part of Tourism Ireland’s ‘twinning’ initiative which sees Great Britain ‘twinned’ with both Limerick and Kerry. The initiative links or ‘twins’ each overseas tourism market with a specific part of Ireland, to accelerate Tourism Ireland’s focus on regional growth of tourism revenue.
In Limerick, the group visited Treaty City Brewery, King John’s Castle and the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum. In Kerry, highlights included a boat trip in Tralee Bay, a visit to Muckross House and a tour with Killarney Photo Tours.
The tour operators’ action-packed itinerary also took them to Cork and included Blarney Castle & Gardens, Charles Fort, a food tour of Kinsale and a dinner theatre experience with Hysterical Histories Cork. Other visits included Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, the Irish National Stud & Gardens and Glasnevin Cemetery.
Judith Cassidy, Tourism Ireland’s Acting Head of Great Britain, said: “Tourism Ireland was delighted to invite these leading British coach and tour operators to Ireland, to experience some of our many visitor attractions and activities for themselves. Our aim is to inspire them to extend the content of their existing programmes and itineraries, or to include Ireland for the first time in their 2026 programmes.
“Tourism Ireland is rolling out an extensive programme of promotional activity in Britain this autumn – highlighting compelling reasons to visit Ireland. Our autumn campaign aims to take advantage of late booking trends, with plenty of business still to play for. One of our key objectives is to drive more business to our regions, right throughout the year.”
