Good Food Ireland won a major national award at the inaugural Irish Tourism Industry Awards


Press Release

27th April 2015

Good Food Ireland won a major national award at the inaugural Irish Tourism Industry Awards in Dublin last Friday night, wining the Best Food Experience category for The Food Summit with Good Food Ireland at the Web Summit, one of the biggest technology conferences in the world. The Irish Tourism Awards recognise the country’s most successful and innovative tourism products, services and experiences. They are organised and presented by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, ITIC’s industry members, Fáilte Ireland, and Tourism Ireland.

 “The Awards give recognition to and promote people, companies and organisations – overseas and at home – that have made significant contributions to developing, marketing, selling and delivering improved visitor experiences in Ireland and to increasing the number of visitors from overseas, said Eamonn McKeown, Chief Executive, The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation.

 

 Over 250 Good Food Ireland approved food and tourism businesses showcased Irish food to 20,000 delegates from 100+ countries over three days last November. 35,000 slices of cooked Irish ham and beef, 54,000 tastings of Irish chutneys and relishes, 10,000 tubs of Irish ice-cream, 432,00 tastings of Irish lamb, beef, pork, duck, chicken, fish, seafood, fruit and vegetables, 480,000 tasting of Irish dairy yogurts and desserts were consumed and the list goes on.

 It was a phenomenal achievement to have pulled off the Food Summit with Good Food Ireland and this award is the highest recognition that we could have received. I am deeply humbled by the massive support and goodwill behind our innovation and our contribution to Ireland’s economy” said Margaret Jeffares, Founder, Good Food Ireland.

 The Web Summit is Europe’s largest festival of ideas and has been dubbed “Davos for geeks.” Founded in 2010, the event has grown exponentially and in 2014 it hosted 20,000 attendees and guests from over 100 countries in Dublin on November 4th- 6th.  A press corps of more than 1000 international journalists from more than 70 countries came to Dublin to cover the event. This represented the largest international business and technology press corps ever assembled in Ireland, with more covering the event than Queen Elizabeth’s visit in 2011.

 Good Food Ireland is like a family of members, and they are came together in a kind of ‘meitheal’ to put their best foot forward, to impress visitors to come to Ireland and leave them with the most amazing lasting memories. Think of the thousands of Web Summit delegates, as the relative arriving in from the States, and everyone in the extended family wanting to impress them, wow them with the best they can offer, and send them home talking about the great time they were shown and the amazing food they had. Good Food Ireland members are the sister who bakes the best bread, the uncle who presses his own apples for a delicious cider, the neighbour who leaves in a handful of eggs for your Mam to make her famous, light as air sponge. To impress the visitors you get the whole family and all the friends you can call on involved, and this is exactly what Good Food Ireland did to fly the flag for Irish food and tourism at Web Summit. This is handmade food, using ingredients often grown and reared by these people and their families, brought together by a family of members to feed and welcome guests. The “Food Summit with Good Food Ireland” was Ireland on a plate, created by individuals with passion, dedication and pride”.