Enterprise award for Róisín

Róisín Kelly-Bennett from Newmarket-on-Fergus was this week announced as the overall winner of the Limerick City Enterprise Board’s National Enterprise Awards. She will now compete for the national title in November.

Róisín, whose parents Jimmy and Teresa Kelly live Carrigerry, has extensive experience of the travel industry having managed both European and US markets for her two previous employers.
Last year, she set up her own company, The Tourist Café Limited, which has since re-branded and is now trading as Travelace, based at Riverfront, Howley’s Quay, Limerick.
As a result of the dramatic change in the travel industry due to internet and low-cost carriers, tourist organisations and airports have found it difficult to get to their potential clients. Travelace represents a new concept in data capture and data management for the travel industry and has built a specialised solution for airports and visitor centres that will capture air travellers and visitors’ contact and profile data for marketing purposes. The agency has a kiosk in place in Shannon Airport and plans to locate kiosks across Europe, starting in UK airports, and is in the process of developing new services, some of which will be Bluetooth enabled. Travelace manage data on behalf of their clients using the latest technology in online and mobile marketing.
The firm’s solution confers a cost saving advantage to the airport or tourist location and valuable data for route development and marketing purposes.  It aims to develop a specialisation in the travel industry providing airports and visitor centres with a cost-effective means of capturing data and the opportunity to boost retail revenue.
Educated at Coláiste Mhuire, Ennis and RTC Galway, where she obtained a Tourism Studies Certificate, Róisín also received a CERT Tour Management/Guiding Certificate, a European Studies Certificate, Certificate in French and a Business Studies Diploma.
She was employed by Shannon Development as tourism marketing manager for southern and Nordic markets from 1989 to 2007 and by Shannon Airport Authority as market development manager for Europe from 1995 to 2007.
Speaking at the presentation of National Enterprise Awards for Limerick City in the Savoy Hotel, Limerick on Monday, Councillor Maria Byrne, Mayor of Limerick, said over 90% of all businesses in the country are micro-enterprises with many ‘small business heroes’ setting up new businesses or navigating existing businesses through the economic storm.