French Travel Writers Pay Laois A Visit
Five top travel writers from France have been exploring Laois and Ireland’s Ancient East. They were here as guests of Tourism Ireland, Fáilte Ireland and Ireland’s Blue Book.
Representing various print and online publications with a combined readership of more than 777,000 people – or potential French holidaymakers – the journalists were here to find out more about our superb visitor experiences in Ireland’s Ancient East and Laois.
Gavin Radford, Tourism Ireland (left); tour guide Mick Langan (third right); and French journalists Catherine Abet, Laurence de Calan, Sylvain Grandadam, Karine Jourdant and Michéle Lasseur, during their fact-finding visit to Ireland.
The group stayed in some of Ireland’s Blue Book’s manor houses and historic hotels in Ireland’s Ancient East, including Castle Durrow. Their action-packed itinerary included a tour of the house and gardens at Emo Court and a visit to the Rock of Dunamese. They also paid a visit to the famous Morrissey’s pub in Abbeyleix.
“Tourism Ireland was delighted to invite this group of influential journalists to come and discover some of the many things to see and do in Ireland’s Ancient East and Laois,” said Monica MacLaverty, Tourism Ireland’s Manager for Southern Europe. “Fact-finding visits like this are a really effective way for us to get positive exposure for Ireland through the media in France, helping us to showcase the excellent tourism experiences on offer here to more than almost 800,000 potential French holidaymakers.
“2017 was the best year ever for Irish tourism from France, when we welcomed almost 550,000 French visitors. We are rolling out an extensive programme of promotional activity once again in 2018, to build on the success of the past few years and continue to grow French visitor numbers.”