The Burren Tolkien Festival celebrates the unique beauty of the Burren in County Clare and its influence on the great novelist JRR Tolkien.
The festival takes place between the 26th June and the 3rd July 2015, and allows those enjoying a vacation in Ireland to explore the rugged landscape and follow in Tolkien’s footprints in the hope of uncovering the mystical world of Middle Earth.
The West Cork Chamber Music Festival is set to celebrate its 20th anniversary this year with an eight day festival which is set to run from the 26th June until the 4th July. The festival is set to take place in the heart of West Cork in Bantry amongst the scenic Bantry House & Gardens as well as St. Brendan’s Church.
The winners of the 2015 Irish Restaurant Awards have just been announced. The restaurant awards are a joint venture between the Restaurants Association of Ireland and the Irish Times.
The Aviva Stadium in Dublin is set to host an American college football game in 2016, which will be the third time in five years such a sporting event will be staged in Ireland. The Aer Lingus College Football Classic will see Boston College take on Georgia Tech at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 3rd September, 2016.
Ireland is set to become one of the biggest whale-watching tourism hotpots in the world thanks to the approximate 100 whales which are spotted off Irish waters every year.
The mammals are in fact drawing many visitors from across the globe, planning a vacation to Ireland. Irish waters are thought to be home to fin, minke as well as humpback whales for 10 out of the 12 months of the year, which is in fact longer than most watching seasons in other countries.
There was more great news for Irish tourism with news that Trips to Ireland has climbed to 19th in the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, which is an improvement of two places on last year’s ranking. The report ranks each country according to its tourism friendliness.
In the last such report in 2013, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Ireland in 21st position. By illustrating improvement in key areas of importance in relation to tourism growth and attractiveness of vacations in Ireland, the WEF sought to move Ireland up in the rankings.
Renowned all over the world for its spectacular scenery, the popular Cliffs of Moher attraction has just received the accolade of the world’s best cliff view by the prestigious Condé Nast Traveller Magazine.
As the leading dance event on the Irish cultural calender, the Dublin Dance Festival returns to the nations capital from the 19th to 30th May 2015. The annual festival attracts dance artists and choreographers from across the globe to convene in Dublin City to celebrate and showcase contemporary dance with local and those on Ireland vacations.
France has regularly proven to be one of Ireland’s top tourism markets and Tourism Ireland are aiming to maintain the recent growth in the number of French planning vacations in Ireland with a new campaign aimed at the Paris Metro. France accounted for almost 455,000 visitors making trips to Ireland in 2014.
