This article is from page 2 of the 2012-03-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
NORTH Clare businessman Marcus White will fly to Moscow next month to sign a deal that could bring tens of thousands of new visitors to Clare, through Shannon Airport, this year.
White and his father, James White, met with the head of Russian company Pegus Tours in Asia last week and have arranged a second meeting in the Russian capital for April 8 when, it is hoped, contracts can be signed.
Pegus Tours are one of the world’s largest tour operators and currently bring more than 100,000 Russian tourist on package holidays to Thailand each year. It is hoped that this contract could open the door for tens of thousands of Russians to visit Lisdoonvarna each year on wellness holiday tours.
An estimated € 5 million was generated in North Clare last year as a result of the 6,000 German tourists who visited Lisdoonvarna as part of the Whites’ seven-day wellness trip to Clare operated with Trend Tours. It was confirmed last week that 16,000 German tourists had already booked to come to Ireland with Trend Tours for 2012, with a large portion of them coming to North Clare.
“We met a major tour operator in Asia last week and he already brings several hundred thousand Russians into Thailand each winter for sun holidays. We met the owner personally and we have another meeting for April 8 when, hopefully, we can sign contracts to bring Russians into Shannon or Dublin Airport,” said Marcus.
“Russia and China are the markets to go after at the moment. We always go after bulk business and, if we can get this Russian charter into Shannon Airport, then I think that everyone in the area will be very happy.
“This is something that we are do- ing completely off our own bat, without the help of any state agencies. We got the Germans in ourselves, myself and my father, and we now want to get the Russians into North Clare and to go after China after that. This has been done with absolutely no help from anyone else.
“If this starts off, we hope that everyone involved in the tourism business will come in and get behind it.”
James White, who is a former Fine Gael TD for Donegal, will meet with the Minister for Tourism, Jimmy Deenihan (FG), in the coming weeks to discuss speeding up the visa system for Russians visiting Ireland.