Visit Wexford has announced hotelier Colm Neville as its new chairperson.
Neville, the owner and operator of the Riverside Park Hotel in Enniscorthy and the newly opened Crown Bar in Wexford Town, is no stranger to the tourism industry and has ambitious plans for the group and the sector in 2016.
Commenting on taking up the new voluntary role, Neville said: “I’m very proud to take the position of chair of Visit Wexford and indeed very proud of all the good work done to date by the combined effort of the Hospitality Trade, The Attractions of Welford and the County Council through Visit Wexford.”
In 2015, overseas visitor numbers to Ireland grew by 12 per cent and continue to rise. Visit Wexford directed media coverage valued at €2.5 million at County Wexford and its tourism industry.
Neville said his main goal was to build greater engagement among stakeholders. “It’s my genuine belief that individually we can achieve very little but together we can accomplish so much. It’s this co-operation and collaboration between the various stakeholders that will achieve the obvious principal goal of Visit Wexford of exposing all that is so great about our county to those outside it. This will attract more visitors and greater expenditure to improve the fortunes of our county’s people and generating more employment for all.”
“I am acutely aware of and on behalf of everyone involved with Visit Wexford, grateful for the support from Wexford County Council,” Neville said. “Our County Manager, Mr Tom Enright, has in his time of tenure shown himself to be a visionary for the future of our county and has committed substantial resources towards the future of tourism in our county. While this has proved to be a great success with Wexford County’s relative position in the popularity rankings and we have visitor numbers to Wexford increase more signficantly than many of our neighbours within the last couple of years, we still need more resources if we are to drive on to the next level and continue to achieve growth.”
Visit Wexford is set to roll out an extensive marketing campaign for 2016, jointly funded by Wexford County Council and the local tourism industry. The campaign includes national radio competitions, features on the national TV events guide, and TV advertising. A multi-site billboard campaign will run at high-traffic areas in Dublin and Cork City, and a new welcome billboard will be installed at Rosslare Port. The campaign also includes attendance at key trade and consumer shows. Two new brochures will be distributed at more than 500 locations across Dublin, the southeast, Dublin Airport, Waterford Airport, and the ferry ports.
According to Neville, a focus on Ireland’s Ancient East will continue throughout 2016 and beyond. “Irelands Ancient East is a hugely significant piece of marketing work currently being undertaken by Failte Ireland following the hugely successful Wild Atlantic Way initiative on the west coast. There is great excitement and anticipation throughout all the counties of the East coast about this long awaited initiative and never before do we need as a county to be well organised and unified in our efforts to influence and direct the substantial national effort in this regard towards the stories and history that abound in our county.”
More than 50 festivals took place across County Wexford during 2015, and organisers expect the sector to remain busy in 2016. The VisitWexford.ie website recorded more than 150,000 unique visitors in 2015, with each browsing for more than three minutes on average. 60 per cent of users were from Ireland, with the remainder coming from overseas.
“I hope to be able to secure the engagement of even more to achieve this and ensure that the tourism sector in our county can be seen to stand up and be counted in promoting its own industry for all our benefit throughout our county,” Neville concluded.
The call to action for all County Wexford marketing is VisitWexford.ie. The tourism group is encouraging all industry participants to ensure their business is listed on the website. Businesses can create a free listing online at www.visitwexford.ie, or get in touch via [email protected]