The beautiful Four Seasons Hotel Carlingford was the setting for the Annual Cross Border Tourism Conference organized by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce.  The event, which was sponsored by Failte Ireland, ZOMA, Louth County Council, Local Enterprise Office Louth, and The Marshes Shopping Centre and attracted just under two hundred delegates from all over Ireland. The Conference was facilitated by Kieran Swail, Southern Regional College.

The event brought together various tourism projects around Ireland and Europe, and it really was a case of “Learning from the Best.”

There were six key speakers including:

Sabhbh Ni Mhaolagain, -Tourism Office Louth County Council discussed “Visit Louth – A Vision for Tourism in County Louth” introduced the new Visit Louth website and strapline “Out here is legendary” highlighting new opportunities arising for future development under the new Louth Tourism Strategy.

David Kieran -ZOMA spoke about “The use of AI in Tourism” explaining how AI can be deployed to help tourism businesses. virtual assistants and chatbots improve productivity and profitability, for example translating sites, itinerary building, demand forecasting, customer data analysis, customer retention and retargeting.

Professor Terry Stevens- Tourism Trend Analysist & Commentator and Harry John – – Head of Market Switzerland for Saint Elmo’s Tourism and Owner of Pure Solution Ltd and Linking Brands Ltd Berne/Vienna covered “Transforming adventure tourism, destinations: new challenges, new players, new responsibilities and new opportunities.” Professor Stevens highlighted how “tomorrows tourists will care” and that the “concept of caring capacity” as introduced in Slovenia will be more relevant than “carrying capacity”. Destinations need to rethink their value offer in terms of co-creation and co-dependency. Harry John encouraged attendees to no to copy other destinations , instead celebrate what makes your destination different.

Mary McKeown Tourism Service Manager Mid Ulster Council “OM Dark Sky Park & Observatory and Sperrin’s – Area of outstanding natural beauty spoke about out their Current Visitor profile and value, collaborating with other tourism partners, what they think visitors are looking for and future plans. The Council introduced a “light management plan” in consultation neighbouring towns an village and this has been key to securing “buy in” from the local community.

Pól Ó Conghaile- Travel Editor with the Irish Independent discussed the “10 Travel Trends in 2025!” with destinations now looking more closely at regenerative tourism and long tourism, whilst visitors are seeking a “tapestry of experiences” with opportunities for “human to human contact”.

There were over twenty exhibitors from all over Louth and beyond and delegates were able to visit the trade stands and network at the coffee breaks and lunch. There was also an educational work shop hosted by ZOMA after the event on How Digital Marketing in Tourism & Hospitality Can Attract Global Guests.

Hanna McDonnell Acting President of opened the Conference.

Dundalk Chamber consistently raise matters with our network, Chambers Ireland. Of these, the introduction of the new travel pass into Northern Ireland is the most immediate. The impact on the tourist business in this region could be significant. As a result, Chambers Ireland raised this with the UK Parliament Northern Ireland Select Committee when they were in Dublin last week.  The MP’S were in listening mode, but some did indicate that this was not anticipated or planned.

The chamber will follow up on this over the short term

Press release ends

For further information on this press release contact Paddy Malone PRO Dundalk Chamber on 086 8244 098 or email paddy@malone.ie