Mayo’s luxury tourism showcased in USA

Fourteen tourism companies from Ireland – including Ashford Castle & The Lodge at Ashford Castle – joined Tourism Ireland in the United States for its first ever Luxury Summit, which took place in southern California last week – visiting Beverly Hills, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach and San Diego.

The four-day luxury sales summit involved a programme of networking events – offering an excellent opportunity for the tourism companies from Ireland to meet, and do business with, leading buyers and decision-makers who specialise in high-end luxury travel from the United States. The aim was to ensure that the island of Ireland is ‘top of mind’ for the buyers when they’re recommending destinations to their clients.

Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America, said: “Our inaugural US Luxury Summit in southern California last week was an excellent platform for Tourism Ireland and our partners, including Ashford Castle, to highlight the superb luxury tourism offering available right around Ireland – from our boutique hotels, castles and luxury resorts to our rich culture and heritage, and not forgetting our world-class golf and superb culinary scene.

“The luxury sales summit offered a really good opportunity to increase awareness of Ireland among the influential luxury travel buyers based in this part of the United States and to secure a greater share of their valuable business for 2023 and beyond.”

The United States remains an extremely important market for tourism to the island of Ireland. In 2019, we welcomed 1.7 million American visitors, whose visits delivered €1.6 billion for the economy.