'Phenomenal success' - Tourism in Laois sees spikes in interest
Almost 90,000 people visited the Laois Chamber Alliance's tourism website last year
Over 2.2 million people saw something on their phone about visiting Laois last year, according to Laois Chamber Alliance who celebrated a successful tourism strategy in the past year.
The CEO of Laois Chamber Alliance, Jackie Carroll, gave a presentation on the organisation at the recent meeting of Laois County Council where she explained that as well as providing support to businesses, the organisation also promotes Laois as a place to visit.
Backed by funding from Laois County Council, Laois Chamber Alliance promotes tourism in the county with around 40% of its members now being businesses involved in the tourism sector.
One of the ways the organisation does this is through creating online itineraries for things to do in Laois such as during Easter or summer.
Speaking at the Laois County Council meeting, Ms Carroll said that in terms of promoting Laois tourism the organisation has seen "phenomenal success for the budget we have."
According to analytics from Laois Chamber Alliance's social media channels, over 2.2 million people saw something on their phones regarding visiting Laois in the past year which proves that promotional content about tourism in Laois is reaching a huge audience.
The Laois Chamber Alliance CEO also noted that over 87,000 people visited the Laois tourism website last year, despite the challenges faced by Google's AI mode taking away some website visitors.
Funding has been given to the organisation through the EU Just Transition Fund which is administered through Fáilte Ireland in order to redesign the website so that AI can pick up key words which is then used in the AI search.
As well as achieving great success in promoting tourism in the county, Laois Chamber Alliance have also seen an increase in its membership in the past year from 125 to 132 members.
Although a modest increase, Ms Carroll said that this is still a notable success as Chambers Ireland have noticed that due to economic uncertainty many businesses are trying to save money on memberships.
Commending Laois Chamber Alliance for their work, Cllr Barry Walsh said that many people have recently remarked that the county is "more visible from a tourism perspective."
Cllr Conor Bergin, who is a member of Laois Chamber Alliance with his own business, added that he knows first-hand that they do "tremendous work for businesses in Laois." He noted that they are also a great advocate for local businesses when it comes to issues facing businesses.