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Declan Hurley Mayor of County Cork on walkabout in Schull . Front L-r Paul Hayes,Tom Stritch Director of services and roads ,Sarah Sinnott engineer Schull, Mary Hegarty and Danny Collins. photo Tom Newman

Rhode Island delegates attending the reception hosted by Cork County Council in recognition of direct flights between Cork and Rhode Island, at Cork County Hall. Also pictured are Sharon Corcoran, director of Economic Development and Tourism of Cork County Council, Tim Lucey, Cork County Council chief executive, Cllr Declan Hurley, Mayor of the County of Cork and Niall MacCarthy, Cork Airport MD. Picture: David Keane. 18.09.2017 For more details see attached press release. Press Release Reception held in County Hall for Rhode Island delegation visit 18th September 2017 Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Declan Hurley today welcomed a delegation led by Mark Brodeur, Director of Tourism, Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to County Hall. The visit comes on foot of the establishment of a direct flight service between Cork and Providence Airport on Rhode Island by Norwegian Air this year. In welcoming the delegation, Mayor Hurley spoke of the opportunities for both regions, particularly in the area of tourism, “Cork has so much to offer the international visitor. From the Wild Atlantic Way on the West Coast to Irelands Ancient East on the East Coast, we are ideally positioned as a gateway to both routes. Now our tourists can land in Cork Airport and decide if they want to head East or West.” Managing Director Cork Airport, Niall MacCarthy highlighted the importance of the relationship between both regions, “We are delighted to reciprocate the hospitality here in Cork to our Friends from Rhode Island in Travel, Tourism and Trade who have planned a full schedule of meetings and engagements during their week long familiarisation trip to Ireland. In addition to their meetings with various Cork business and educational institutions, the delegation is looking forward to establishing new relationships with varied interests in Cork looking to establish links with the State of Rhode Island on the strength on the new connectivity afforded by Norwegian between Cork and Providence. As well as a formal reception with Mayor Hurley, the delegation will also have the opportunity to visit Kinsale, Midleton, Blarney and of course, Cork City. The trip is an excellent opportunity for us to build on the relationships that we have formed over the past number of years, when we have been trying to secure the route. There has been a tremendous response from both sides of the Atlantic to the new direct access to the South of Ireland from both a business and tourism perspective.” “Now that the Norwegian service is well underway, it is crucially important that it is supported both here in Munster and in Rhode Island. For our part, we are doing everything we can to ensure that both regions’ economies feel the benefits and we are delighted to be working with partners who share the share vision,” he added. An industry worth €8 billion annually, tourism figures reached a record number of almost 9 million in 2016 with near on 2 million travelling from North American. Speaking at the reception, Mayor Hurley spoke of the Council’s aims in growing this market for Cork, “We have developed a solid cooperative twinning relationship between the historic tourist Town of Kinsale and Newport which has led to delegations from the world of politics, business and tourism travelling between the two regions, consolidating future growth. Now we hope to extend this working model of cooperation to other Towns and Regions in Cork County and increase visitor numbers to Cork and to the US. Indeed Cork County Council has already initiated this process with visits to Boston, Scituate, Cook County, New York, Detroit, and Miami during 2017. Mayor Hurley went on to say, “We know that international visitors want to explore our beautiful landscape, our history and culture, our festivals our food and our way of life. Hill walking, golfing, food tourism, mountain biking, these are just some of the activities that attract and sustain the visitor. 2016 saw the largest number of visitors yet to visit our Country. Now that we have direct access in and out of Cork Airport to the US market we are certain that we can add to that increasing number in the years ahead. This will be good for Ireland but great for Cork.” ENDS

DKANE 17102017 REPRO FREE Eoin Prendergast, Fiona Curran, Sue O’Mahony, Carol Crean, and Damien Prendergast, organisers of the ‘Make Your Mark on Cancer’ walk which raised €52,873 last July for the construction and development of the Mercy Hospital Foundation’s proposed new Cancer CARE Centre; pictured with Dr Derek Power, Consultant Oncologist at The Mercy University Hospital and Micheál Sheridan, CEO, Mercy Hospital Foundation at the proposed site on Wood St., Cork City Picture Darragh Kane

REPRO FREE 28/10/2016, Offenbach, Germany – Twenty-nine (29) tourism companies from the island of Ireland travelled to Offenbach, near Frankfurt – to take part in a B2B workshop and networking event with leading German tour operators. The event was organised by Tourism Ireland, in a bid to grow visitor numbers from Germany, our third-largest tourism market, in 2017 and beyond. PIC SHOWS: Markus Baeuchle, Wanderlust (second from the right); with Nicola Duggan, Sneem Hotel; Aidan McElligott, The Lake Hotel Killarney; Gretel O’Sullivan, Destination Killarney Group; Denise Quinn, Tourism Ireland; Susan Randles, Randles Hotels; and David Murphy, Rose Travel, attending Tourism Ireland’s B2B workshop and networking event in Offenbach. Pic – Jürgen Lecher (no repro fee) Further press info – Niamh Doherty, Tourism Ireland 01-476 3425

***REPRO FREE*** 19th November 2017 Pictured (Left/right) Grainne Dwyer, Skibbereen, STORI Creative, Sean Vincent, Clonakilty, Ambiguous Fiddle Media, Christine Heffernan, LEO Cork North & West, Callum Donnelly, Skibbereen, Parrot Scribe, at the Local Enterprise Office Cork City & County’s business boot camp event as part of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition 2018, at The Celtic Ross Hotel on November 17th and 18th. For more information see ibye.ie. Photo: Cathal Noonan