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Despite the recent destruction caused to the coastline in Mayo, there may be some relief for beaches which it was feared would lose their Blue Flag status this year because the damage caused would not be cleared up by the time they were inspected. An Taisce held its annual Blue Flag conference with local authorities this week to discuss the blue flag and green flag programs for this year.

Westport House was among 10 tourism enterprises from Ireland which travelled to London last weekend to join Tourism Ireland for Excursions, an annual group travel show which attracts about 1,000 influential coach and group tour operators from around Great Britain.

Fourteen tourism enterprises from Ireland - including Waveline Cruises which is based in Athlone - travelled to Stuttgart recently, to join Tourism Ireland for this year’s CMT (Caravan, Motor, and Tourism) Fair. At the fair, the busy Tourism Ireland stand took first prize for best stand, beating off stiff competition from 2,000 other exhibitors.

A number of Mayo hoteliers and tourism enterprises attended the launch of Tourism Ireland’s marketing plans to promote Ireland overseas in 2014 and beyond, at an event attended by Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar. The event took place in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin and was attended by Mayo tourism enterprises – including the Westport Woods Hotel, Ashford Castle and the Downhill House Hotel. Tourism Ireland aims to build on this year’s growth in overseas tourism and to welcome 25.6 million visitors to the island over the coming three years – contributing some €12.6 billion to the economies, north and south.

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring joined Tourism Ireland and 70 tourism enterprises from across the island of Ireland at World Travel Market (WTM) in London on Monday heralding the beginning of the promotional drive for the 2014 season.

Ireland West Airport Knock this week welcomed the Government decision to reduce the air travel tax from €3 to zero and maintain the VAT rate at 9 per cent in the tourism sector as announced in the budget on Tuesday. A statement released by the airport said: “The airport believes this news will serve to continue to boost the tourism sector and encourage airlines to add more air access to the island and in particular to grow passenger numbers and overseas visitors through Ireland West Airport Knock. The airport now looks forward to working closely in the next few weeks with its airline partners on new services for 2014 to boost the number of inbound visitors significantly to the region.”

Budget 2014 is a further boost for tourism with the retention of the nine per cent VAT rate, the travel tax cut to €0, and €8 million provided for the Wild Atlantic Way tourism route, according to the Minister for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring.

Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring has said that the retention of the nine per cent VAT rate for tourism services will be a great boost to the tourism sector. Minister Ring has also warmly welcomed the scrapping of the air travel tax, as introduced by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan TD, as part of Budget 2014.

THE west was awake on twitter all this week after 40 of the world’s top travel and tourism bloggers were brought on an exciting trour of the west of Ireland, courtesy of Failte Ireland.

The majestic holy mountain of Croagh Patrick has been selected as one of only a handful Irish destinations which have been included in the just-published Lonely Planet's 1000 Ultimate Adventures.