With numbers of North American visitors to Ireland on the up, part of the credit for the increase can be laid at the door of New Jersey-based CIE Tours International, which is preparing to mark its 80th anniversary next year.
The anniversary, and the news that 2011 is turning into a strong performance year for the company, combined as the centerpiece for remarks delivered at a lunch gathering in New York last week by company CEO, Brian Stack.
Stack noted that very few tour companies could actually boast of reaching 80 years in business.
2011, he said, had seen a 20 percent increase in the company's escorted tours to Ireland and a rise of 18 percent in independent vacation bookings.
Though it is an Irish company, CIE Tours also sends its customers on tours to Britain and continental Europe. In the case of Britain, the company was able to report a 60 percent increase in escorted tours to England, Scotland and Wales.
Stack stressed in his remarks that part of the company's success was due to the fact that it insisted that hoteliers and others apply the highest standards for the company's customers and that those customers be treated as individuals on holiday, and not just be consigned to the category of being part of a large tour group.
