Tourism Ireland is assuring travel trade and consumers that the welcome in Ireland will be as wonderful as ever when Covid restrictions allow travel to resume. The tourism industry right across the island of Ireland re-opened over the summer for domestic visitors and the industry is obviously very much looking forward to welcoming back the travel trade and their clients from the US when the time is right.

Tourism Ireland has put together an informative video to allow trade contacts in the US to see the huge work that has been undertaken to ensure the safety and well-being of vacationers.

Niall Gibbons, Tourism Ireland CEO, ““Our colleagues in Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland have been working closely with the tourism industry as they re-opened and I’m pleased to share a video with you that shows all the measures that have been put in place to ensure that your clients will have a great vacation on the island of Ireland in 2021. The health and safety of all our visitors will be the priority and we will ensure they are protected – while still delivering a very warm Irish welcome and a great holiday experience.

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Mr. Gibbons continued, “We know and understand the very great difficulty this uncertainty causes for our travel trade partners in the US but we will continue to do everything we can to help and will update you on any developments as they take place.

We thank you for your ongoing support for Tourism Ireland and the tourism industry on the island of Ireland.

We very much value your business and look forward to working with you to rebuild it in the months and years ahead.”

Last week the Irish Government announced that they are now working towards the adoption of the proposed new EU ‘traffic light’ system that aims to open up international travel across Europe. It is hoped that this will be finalized in time for decision at the EU’s General Affairs Council meeting on October 13th.

You can find more detail on the official Government website here.

In Northern Ireland, there are also restrictions in place and visitors from outside a designated list of countries are required to self-isolate for 14 days. Neither the US or Canada are on this exempted list currently.