IRISH
NOSH: CIE Tours International introduced a four-night,
air-inclusive escorted vacation to Ireland priced from $796 per
person from New York (Kennedy), Boston or Baltimore/Washington.
Departures for this Taste of Ireland trip are slated on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and some Saturdays, from Sept. 2 through Dec. 9, and from
Feb. 10 to April 28. Rates include round-trip air; six-days'
motorcoach sightseeing; accommodations at theBurlington Hotel,
Dublin (one night), Killarney Towers (two nights), and Great
Southern Hotel, Shannon (one night), or similar; four full Irish
breakfasts and four dinners, including meals with entertainment at
the Abbey Tavern and Bunratty Castle; welcome drink; tour and
tasting at the Guinness Storehouse; tea and scones at an Irish
farmhouse; and all taxes and hotel service charges. Land-only is
also available from $529; for more on CIE -- which pays agents 10%
on land and varying commissions on air -- call (800) 243-8687 or go
to www.cietours.com.
WELCOME: The Belfast Visitor and Convention
Bureau (BVCB) and Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB) opened a
multilingual tourist information center in the arrivals area at
Belfast International Airport, a move officials attributed to
increased traffic in and out of the facility. Belfast's two
airports reported increases of between 5% and 10% in inbound
passengers this summer. And the BVCB said all visits to the city
jumped this July, with 33,670 people calling at its Belfast Welcome
Centre, a 20% rise compared to July 2003. Cruise travel also boomed
in July, with ships depositing more than 5,000 passengers, along
with an estimated $5 million to $7 million in revenue, at the Port
of Belfast. Eight more vessels are due to dock at the port before
Sept. 30, including Princess Cruises' Grand Princess, the largest
such ship in the world. For more, visit www.gotobelfast.com.
WIRED IN
IRELAND: The four-star Ardilaun House Hotel in Galway, a
Select Hotels of Ireland property, introduced broadband Internet
access in all its newly refurbished luxury bedrooms. The property
also boasts both wired and wireless broadband in all its meeting
rooms, making the 89-room hotel one of the few hot spots for WiFi
connectivity in Ireland. Rates at the Ardilaun, which include
breakfast, range from about $120 to approximately $315 per night.
Limerick-based Select Hotels -- a collection of four-star-quality
"European-style" properties in Belfast, Donegal, Dublin, Galway,
Connemara, Killarney, Kilkenny, Laois, Westport, Bettystown Beach,
Waterford and Wexford -- pays agents negotiated commissions,
starting at a base rate of 10%. For more information or to book,
visit www.selecthotelsireland.com or send e-mail to [email protected] or call (011) 353-6
144-0440.
THE
TOPS: Motorcoach operator The Dualway Group won the
Ireland's Best Award for Service Excellence from Irish national
tourism development authority Failte Ireland. The 26-year-old
company is the first coach operator among 56 other such hospitality
and tourism firms so honored to date. To win the designation,
Dualway's staff and management of 120 underwent a process of
"stringent training and assessment," according to Failte Ireland.
The company is best known in Dublin for open-top bus sightseeing
tours, but it also offers airport and ferry transfers, shuttle
service, tailored excursions to destinations such as Kilkenny and
Kerry, and vintage double decker bus rentals. For more on Dualway,
visit www.dualwaycoaches.com; for more on Failte Ireland and
its Ireland's Best program, go to www.failteireland.ie.