This article is from page 10 of the 2012-05-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A NORTH Clare hotelier travelled to China over the weekend for a toplevel meeting with members of the Chinese government, in an effort to open a door for thousands of tourists from China to visit Clare in the coming year.
Lisdoonvarna businessman Marcus White flew out to Beijing last Thursday, just days after returning from a similar trade meeting in Russia. It is as yet unclear whether either of these trade meetings will yield a major tourism breakthrough for the county, but the growing middle-classes in both Russia and China are considered to be one of the major future growth markets for world tourism.
In 2010, Mr White succeeded in forging a relationship with a major German tour operator which has brought more than 15,000 German tourists to North Clare in the past two years.
“This could be a big help to Shannon Airport. The publicity that was gained when Xi Jinping was here was really encouraging and was a big help for what I’m going. It is very important that we can find a way to deliver on this market,” said Mr White.
“I met with Ramazan Akpinar from Pegas earlier in the month. Currently, they bring more than 600,000 Russians on tours to Thailand every year, so if we can get even a small slice of that market, it will be massive for Clare and Ireland.
“We were in Russia trying to encourage him to work with us to bring more Russian tourists into Ireland. It was a positive meeting but it will probably take another year to develop this into something real.
“Russia is very much an up-andcoming country and now is the right time for the Irish tourism board to target that market.
“I think the only way to do this is to go over there and meet the people who make the big decisions. The Irish embassy [in Russia] have been very good to me but more needs to be done to make this a reality.”
White’s Hotel Group operates the Burren Castle Hotel, the Hydro Hotel, the Imperial Hotel and the King Thomand Hotel in Lisdoonvarna, as well as a number of hotels in Donegal.