New awards celebrate the best Ireland has to offer

The best in Ireland’s inbound travel industry celebrated in style this month with the launch of the inaugural ITTN travel2ireland Awards.

A glittering daytime event took place on Friday, October 6, at the prestigious InterContinental Hotel, Dublin, with more than 140 attendees present, representing sectors across the thriving Irish inbound tourism and hospitality industry.

Categories in the exciting new awards ceremony included: Tourism Services, sponsored by Aer Lingus; Tours & Experiences, sponsored by Vox Group; Food & Culture, sponsored by Hertz; and Hotels, which was sponsored by Dublin Airport.

The wide range of accolades, across 19 separate titles, sought to reward the many exciting and diverse areas in which companies are excelling in the travel arena in Ireland right now.

In Tourism Services, Best Local Tourism Office was awarded to Dungarvan Tourism, Best County Tourism Office was won by Leitrim Tourism, and the winner of Best Tour Group was Discovering Ireland.

The ceremony, which was led by award-winning travel writer Fionn Davenport, also recognised the important role played by social media in championing Ireland’s inbound travel industry.

The Cliffs of Moher secured the coveted title of Most Instagrammable Destination, while excellence in PR and communications was recognised with the Best PR Representation Award, won by Unicorn PR & Communications.

The appetite for the event was evident by the vast number of entries secured, with some 300 impressive entries needing to be honed down to create shortlists of five for each of the 19 prestigious awards.

Sharon Jordan, managing director of ITTN (Ireland’s Travel Trade Network) Group, highlighted the important role played by the awards in celebrating home-grown talent, particularly given what the industry has had to weather in recent years.

She said: “After many dark days during and post-pandemic, it was with great joy that we welcomed the crème de la crème of Irish industry to celebrate their hard-won achievements. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to thank all the hard-working teams across the country, and we are personally humbled and honoured that our readers’ 23,000-plus votes meant so much to so many dedicated travel professionals.”

She paid tribute to those involved in making the exciting new event such a success and thanked the sponsors, Dublin Airport, Hertz Car Rental, Aer Lingus, Bibendum Ireland, Jameson, Vox Group and Silk Prestige Sustainable Flowers, for their valued contribution.

“We are thrilled with the way in which the inbound travel industry embraced our inaugural travel2ireland awards,” said Jordan.

Ireland’s exciting offering of travel experiences was well represented in the awards, with accolades for Best Food Festival and Best Cultural Festival bestowed on Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival and Fleadh Cheoil respectively.

Best Foodie Experience was won by Matt the Thresher and Best Pub Experience was secured by Café en Seine. Fota Island proved a popular spot across several categories, with the five-star Fota Island Resort Spa securing a win for Best Spa Experience and Fota Wildlife Park taking home the accolade for Best Family Experience.

But the awards also showcased the vast geographical spread of incredible tourist attractions and services operating the length and breadth of Ireland today. In the North, Titanic Belfast celebrated a win for Best Indoor Experience, while at the other corner of the country, Jameson Distillery in Midleton, Co Cork, took the award for Best Distillery.

Adare Manor secured two impressive Highly Commended places in the Best Luxury Hotel category and in the Best Golf Course category for Adare Manor Golf Course.

The winner for Best Dressed, sponsored by Styleshop.ie, was named as Emma Lavelle of Dalata Hotel Group.

The success of the inaugural travel2ireland awards is testament to the huge strides being made by the group within the travel industry in recent years. While still the new kid on the block in the wider Irish Travel Trade Network (ITTN) group of companies, which is over 50 years in business, travel2ireland has grown a web and social reach of over one million per month in just two short years, covering all things Ireland.