Fáilte

Fáilte

Fáilte , Fàilte , and Failt is a word meaning "welcome".This word appears in the Irish phrase céad míle fáilte as well as the similar Scottish phrase ceud mìle fàilte and the Manx keead milley failt. It also occurs in the name of Fáilte Ireland and its predecessor organization, Bord Fáilte...

 Ireland ("Ireland's Welcome") is the National Tourism Development Authority of the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. This authority was established under the National Tourism Development Authority Act of 2003 and replaces and builds upon the functions of Bord Fáilte, its predecessor organization. Fáilte Ireland's current CEO is Redmond O'Donoghue

Redmond o'Donoghue

Redmond O'Donoghue is the former CEO of the Waterford Wedgewood, he held that position until his retirement at the end of 2005. He is currently the CEO of Failte Ireland, chairman of Good Food Ireland and chairman of Waterford Institute of Technology. He also serves on the board of Greencore.-...

Name

Being composed of an Irish word and an English word, the meaning of the name of this organization is a little unclear. Although the enabling Act mentions only that the "...Authority may, for operational purposes, describe itself as Fáilte Ireland", the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism refers to the authority in Irish as Fáilte Éireann. This suggests the intended meaning is "Ireland's Welcome".

In reality, Bord Fáilte meant 'Welcome Board', 'fáilte' being a greeting in Gaeilge that means 'welcome'. Fáilte Ireland cannot be translated as it is a brand name.

Activities

The goal of Fáilte Ireland is to provide strategic and practical support in developing and sustaining Ireland as a high-quality and competitive tourist destination. Fáilte Ireland works in partnership with tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 interests to support the industry in its efforts to be more profitable and to help individual tourist enterprises enhance their performance.

Its activities fall into four areas:

• Tourism Marketing: provides marketing support and a range of cost-efficient promotional opportunities for Irish product providers, marketing groups, tour operators, handling agents, and other tourism interests as well as visitor services to consumers. Fáilte Ireland's "Festivals and Cultural Events Initiative" and "Sports Tourism Initiative" fall under this heading.
• Training Services: provides education and advice for people working in the tourism industry including training unemployed adults and assisting them back into the workforce. Fáilte Ireland have recently launched a new campaign which aims to encourage and support young people into choosing a career in the tourism sector. The campaign is called 'Pick Tourism' and it ulitises social networking sites such as Bebo
  Bebo
  Bebo is a social networking website launched in July 2005. It is currently owned and operated by Criterion Capital Partners after taking over from AOL in June 2010....
  
  in an effort to reach out to young people.
• Product Development: provides support for selective capital investment in tourism product through grant-aid and tax incentive schemes and encourages new and innovative products and areas of service.
• Research and Statistics: provides overviews of tourism performance and profiles all aspects of tourism development to provides a knowledge base to guide industry development and services.