Tourism conference ‘good value for money’

ORGANISERS of a conference entitled Tourism in Recessionary Times have defended its value for money after local authorities across Ireland received a letter expressing concerns about it.

 

The tourism conference, run by Clare Tourist Council in conjunction with Clare County Council, opens in Ennistymon on Thursday.

Sinn Féin Councillor Mick Quinn raised the issue at a meeting of Donegal County Council, where members agreed to circulate a letter that expressed “concern in relation to the value for money aspect of registering for the conference on the evening of January 17”.
The letter states that members of Donegal County Council noted “that registration was also scheduled to take place on the afternoon of January 18, 2013 and thus having considered the financial implications involved, resolved to approve attendance for January 18 and 19, 2013 only”.
The Donegal elected representatives then asked that all local authorities be informed of their decision.

According to the conference programme, registration takes place on Thursday evening from 6pm to 7pm but it begins again on Friday from 2pm to 3.30pm, followed by the official opening of the conference by Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher MEP.

“Basically, what I was concerned about was delegates attending from Donegal, who would claim overnight expenses if they only attended on the first night. I am not being critical of the content of the conference but I believe that no local authority should pay anyone for attending the first night only, because there is nothing happening. I genuinely believe it would be an outrageous waste of public monies, particularly in view of the issues raised about attendance and, more importantly, non-attendance of elected members at conferences across the country,” Councillor Quinn explained.

Former Mayor of Clare Flan Garvey is chairman of Clare Tourist Council. He says the gap between registration on Thursday evening and the conference starting on Friday afternoon is easily accounted for.
“Unfortunately, there is an omission from the programme. Our secretary has received emails in relation to this from various people. She has explained to them that usually on the Thursday evening we have a tradeshow where, for example, tourism businesses or various local authorities can share promotional materials about their area but this year it was omitted from the programme,” he explained.

The former county councillor believes the conference offers value for money for delegates, given the calibre of speakers. “There are big names on the programme and it is good value for money. There is always good camaraderie at the conference and good food and good music. It is still the middle of winter and this is a great chance for Clare to show off what it has to offer.

“We have found that people who come to the conference are very likely to come back in the summer or the autumn to visit Clare again because we show them what we have on offer and the value we have here and, my God, we have a lot to offer in Clare, what with the Burren, golf, Lough Derg, East Clare, the caves, fishing, walking, dolphin watching. Clare has a bit of everything,” Mr Garvey stated.

Mr Garvey said he would not comment on the circulation of this letter by Donegal County Council to all other local authorities.

Councillor Quinn defended Donegal County Council’s decision in relation to this saying, “any council can only approve attendance at conferences based on the itinerary that is available to them”.

He added that he “would expect anyone attending on Friday would glean more information than at a trade show. I would not be happy for our council to pay substantial expenses to a councillor just to attend a trade show.”

However, he added, “I would have no objection to anyone attending a trade show at their own expense.”

More than 150 people are expected to attend the conference, which takes place in the Falls Hotel, Ennistymon. The conference includes presentations by the project director of The Gathering, a representative of Cuimhneamh An Chláir, the tourism development officer of Derry City Council, the head of hotel, catering and tourism at the Institute of Technology in Tralee, Mayo County Council county manager, the destination development manager with Fáilte Ireland and the head of sales and marketing with the Titanic Centre in Belfast. Leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Micheál Martin, will be the guest speaker at the conference banquet.