Essential hospitality and tourism practices for small businesses
Print
EmailIreland Tourism Board has a website aimed at improving and increasing income for hospitality businesses - information that any small business could find useful.
Ever since visiting Ireland in 2007 with a Michigan State University Extension study tour, a packet of information related to Ireland’s rural tourism has been sitting on my shelf, just waiting to be reviewed again! Recently, I took the opportunity to glance through the materials and one particular pamphlet caught my attention. It was written and distributed by CERT, the Council for Education, Recruitment and Training. While doing research to find out more about CERT, I discovered the Failte Ireland website.
Photo: Irish countryside
On this site I learned CERT has merged with the Failte Ireland Board to “increase the focus of achieving a cohesive tourism strategy for Ireland to ensure a strong sustainable tourism industry.”
I also discovered that the Failte Ireland website has some excellent materials for anyone wanting to start or become more knowledgeable about increasing tourism and hospitality business income. The site provides useful and detailed documents regarding each of the following:
- Developing Your Business – includes a wide variety of business tools, steps on how to market overseas and funding possibilities.
- Marketing Opportunities – offers listings and marketing information about how to prepare for a trade show or event.
- Online Marketing – provides an array of web-based tools and suggestions on how to help customers find a website.
- Research – displays up-to-date research related to the tourism and hospitality business.
- News and Features – catalogs a news feature library.
- Training – has listings for online webinars and workshops.
- Your Sector – includes directories of accommodations, events and attractions in a particular area of the country.
The information in the CERT pamphlet that had been sitting on my shelf now seems limited after reviewing the website developed by Failte Ireland, in partnership with CERT. Through this website, anyone interested in increasing tourism and hospitality income can view a variety of practices recommended by the Irish Tourism Development Authority.
