Waterford, the South East and Ireland in general can benefit over the coming years from the opportunities that the tourism sector presents according to speakers who spoke at House of Waterford Crysal this evening.

Despite the gloom and doom and a huge oversupply of beds in the hotel and accomodation sector in Ireland, there is still hope and according to Eamonn McKeown of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation there is potential to increase business starting in the second half of 2011. The main countries which are being targeted to bring more tourists to Ireland are the UK, the US, France and Germany. While there is potential in the long term to target visitors from China and other far eastern countries, it is felt that due to distances and length of vacations that it would be difficult to attract a substantial number at this stage.

Some of the key attractions for visitors to come to Waterford and the southeast are heritage and culture, walking and surfing holidays. Waterford with its plans for ‘Waterfords Viking Triangle’ will have a fantastic opportunity to attract tourists interested in historical cities and sites which can show the changes over many centuries which in Waterofrd’s case is the ‘Vikings to the Victorian’ era.

While not involved myself in the Tourism sector I do provide internet marketing services to a number of businesses in the sector so it was interesting to hear where the opportunities present themselves and by being creative and inventive new business channels will open up. For example the video produced for DVD has now gone viral on You Tube and attracting alot of  interest to the Irish Tourism’s new opportunity site.