In this blog Harry Connolly, coordinator at Fáilte Feirste Thiar reflects on time spent yesterday with German competition winners ……..
Pictured above are West Belfast’s newest friends receiving a warm welcome yesterday from our new MP Paul Maskey and our new director of Féile an Phobail Kevin Gamble, on the surface this may look like just another group of tourists enjoying another fantastic Féile an Phobail and bumping into a local public representative however that couldn’t be further from the truth because Christina Lowe -Bruhn and her family along with Andreas Rüther and his family are the lucky winners of a competition ran in a leading German travel guide ‘Irland Journal’.
You may ask why Germans are running competitions to visit West Belfast. Of course nothing ever happens by accident and this is in fact the outworking of a marketing campaign by Tourism Ireland (The organisation that markets the island of Ireland to the rest of the world) assisted by ourselves here in West Belfast and supported by German operators to ensure that Ireland is seen as an accessible, fun place to visit were visitors can submerge themselves in Irish culture and events.
It shows the strength of our local festival that from all the places in Ireland to choose from Tourism Ireland continues to plug West Belfast significantly. When Niall Gibbons current CEO of Tourism Ireland led a delegation to West Belfast in the summer of 2008 they instantly grasped the real potential of West Belfast’s offering. Tourism Ireland has stuck with West Belfast advised and enhanced our approach.
Tourism Ireland has helped to showcase West Belfast to the rest of the world at some of the most prestigious events in the world of international marketing. West Belfast has showcased at huge events such as the largest Irish festival anywhere in the world at ‘Milwaukee Irish Fest’ to the largest trade show in Europe ‘ITB Berlin’.
The challenge for us in West Belfast is to capitalise on all of this good will by ensuring our community continues to churn out events and product with global appeal whilst at the same time maximising local participation.
Timing is absolutely everything, as we happened to be having tea and a yarn with our new German friends in Caife Feirste another German family who have in fact been attending Féile events for the past ten years happened to fall into the company and of course that happened by accident!!
So farewell to Christina and Andreas and their respective clan’s who left us in absolute no doubt that we will be seeing them back at the people’s festival in the years ahead!!
PS – Next years German competition may have to be more of a brain teaser. The question for the competition was ‘On which road in Belfast are Féile an Phobail offices based?’ Now, German or not who wouldn’t get that right!!
Auf Wiedersehen
Harry Connolly
Tourism development Co-ordinator
