Expensive airfares deterring US visitors

MAYOR of Shannon Michael Fleming was in New Jersey representing his town for St Patrick’s Day and said there is a lot of interest there in visiting Ireland but the cost of transatlantic travel is the main stumbling block.
“I’ve spoken to some people about the airport and it seems to be the airlines who are stopping people from coming in here at the minute. I hope something can be done about it because the big thing that I brought away was the price of the flights,” he told The Clare Champion this week.
Councillor Fleming said one American couple had been interested in flying into Shannon over St Patrick’s weekend but were discouraged by a charge of $1,700.
He said major efforts were made to promote Shannon and Clare in the US. “There are still very big blisters on my feet from all the walking. We put out the word about Shannon and County Clare, about The Gathering, about the airport. The commitments I got from over there look good and if the commitments I got from people who want to come to Shannon and Clare go ahead, it’ll be very good.”
He said that at a pre-parade meeting, it was obvious how seriously the locals regard their parade. “We were at a pre-parade meeting, which outlined what the committee had done and what funds had been taken in, as well as the costing of the Union County parade. They had put an awful lot of work in and the parade cost around USD$55,000 to run.”
Councillor Fleming said he was asked to open a restaurant and ended up being presented with the ceremonial freedom of the borough of Fanwood.
As well as spending time in New Jersey, he also visited New York. “On Saturday, we had a mass before the parade in St Patrick’s Church in Elizabeth. Then we were taken to the parade and after that we went onto a Veteran’s Centre, where there was a party and some speeches. We had a great day with them and we talked about Shannon, Clare and The Gathering.”