Dr Michael Martin, The Titanic Trail and a key member of our Hospitality Committee highlights the importance of a focused effort on building relationships with travel operators, which he sees effective for attracting visitors and creating a lasting impact on Cobh’s economy.
”Nowadays people think social media is the be all and end all of everything, a few posts and lots of ‘likes’ miraculously transform into visitors. Others think the occasional festival, coupled with a few ‘fun days’ will bring holidaymakers rolling in. The reality is that to build and maintain a sustained steady stream of visitors to Cobh, we have to travel to the marketplace. We have to go and meet the tour operators of UK, United States, Scandinavia and Australia/NZ on a regular basis to get them to encourage their clients to choose an activity in Cobh. In recent years we have attended workshops each year in all of these marketplaces to promote Cobh and the Titanic Trail. Competition at these gathering is tough. Product providers from destinations like Hawaii, Canada and East Asia are all there trying to capture the market and attract visitors to their products. For over 26 years we have been there, flying the flag and ensuring our portion of this market that brings income and jobs to the town. ”
