Fáilte Ireland:

The Chamber has attended Fáilte Ireland’s Regional Tourism Briefing which outlined its priorities for 2013. Tourism in Ireland has greater potential due to increasing confidence in the industry and growth in the overseas markets. The year ahead will focus primarily on the Gathering but there will also be resources dedicated to looking at how best to sell Ireland as a tourist destination overseas. As part of this, Fáilte Ireland has announced a number of courses for businesses in Web Training and Online Support. More details on these courses can be found at http://www.failteireland.ie/. 

There will also be two workshops relating to the Gathering held in February:

• ‘Essential Event Management for the Gathering 2013’ will take place on Friday 5^th February from 9am – 4.30pm in the Oriel House Hotel, Ballincollig.  
• ‘Cost effective Marketing for your Gathering & Collecting Visitor Info’ will be held on Wednesday 27^th February from 9am -12.30pm or 1.30pm to 4.30pm in the Cork International Airport Hotel.

You can register for these events by contacting Lisa Doeringsfeld at lisa.doeringsfeld@failteireland.ie or 021-4233205.



Irish Rail Timetable 2013:

Irish Rail has announced details of its new timetable in 2013. The revisions to the Cork-Dublin route will reduce journey times and ensure efficiency for business travellers.  Changes to the Cork-Dublin route include:

• Removal of the 05.05 service from Cork to Dublin.  This will be replaced by a 06.00 service which will arrive in Dublin at 08.30.
• 21 of the 28 daily services will be delivered in 2 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours 35 minutes, with the remainder delivered in 2 hours 45 minutes or less. 
• An additional service will be introduced from Cork to Dublin at 19.20
• Most services from Cork to Dublin will depart at 20 minutes past the hour instead of 30 minutes past the hour. The exception to this will be departures from Cork at 06.00, 07.00 and 08.00.

There are also changes to the commuter routes in Cork.  A 06.15 Midleton to Cork service will allow commuters to connect with the 07.00 service Cork to Dublin. There are also 2 additional routes on the Mallow commuter line. Further details are available here