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Minister of State for Tourism & Sport, Michael Ring, has welcomed the first CSO tourism figures for 2012, which show that visits to Ireland increased again compared to the previous year for the period November 2011 - January 2012.

Myriad iconic attractions around the world are to ‘go green’ this year to mark St Patrick’s Day and to kick off Tourism Ireland’s major first half promotional drive to develop overseas tourism.

Despite recent upbeat reports regarding an increase in overseas visitors to Ireland in 2011, Fáilte Ireland warned against any complacency in the tourism sector this year, during its annual tourism industry briefing for the Galway region held in the city last week

Failte Ireland has made a commitment to help promote Mayo Tourism throughout 2012 following its annual Tourism Industry Briefing held in Westport on Tuesday last. In a discussion with tourism operators in the county at Knockranny House Hotel, the tourism body warned against any complacency in the sector, stressing that the hard lessons and good work of the last few years will need to continue.

Commenting on CSO figures issued this week on overseas visitor numbers to Ireland for the period January-October 2011, Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, stated: “These figures show that visitor numbers for the year to date are now +7.4 per cent ahead of the same 10-month period last year. However, the economic turmoil of recent months has brought increased uncertainty, affecting business and consumer confidence, and in turn, international travel. Given the scale of the challenges facing the global economy right now, travel and tourism look likely to face a fairly cautious passage into 2012.”

The Western Development Commission (WDC) welcomes the announcement this week that Ryanair will commence four new international flights from Ireland West Airport Knock. The new schedules will start in April 2012 between Ireland West Airport Knock and Barcelona, Frankfurt, Milan and Paris resulting in a total of 14 Ryanair routes from the West of Ireland airport.

Mayo man Derek Reilly embarks on a trip of a lifetime with Francis Brennan and 15 other tourists as they travel from Barcelona to Rome in a new RTÉ TV series called Francis Brennan’s Grand Tour.

Westport played host to a Failte Ireland Adventure and Activity two-day forum this week which was attended by tourism operators from abroad keen to see what Mayo has to offer as well as local operators interested in learning from their counterparts’ experiences abroad.

Greater innovation is urgently needed to attract more overseas visitors to the west of Ireland, if the trend of fewer holidaymakers going west is to be reversed. From Donegal to Cork, the hospitality industry needs to create more distinctive reasons to visit. This is a key finding of a new report - New Directions for Tourism in the West - from the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC).

Glasson Country House Hotel & Golf Club are delighted to announce that they have been awarded an Eco-Label from greenhospitality.ie. The four-star lakeview hotel achieved the Eco-Label by introducing an Environmental Action Plan focusing on energy, waste, and water management. The project was run in conjunction with Westmeath Community Development and sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency.