It has been announced today that Irish tourism organisations have joined Tourism Ireland in Spain for this year’s B-Travel fair, the largest holiday show in the Catalonia region of Spain, which takes place this weekend in Barcelona.

B-Travel – formerly SITC – attracts more than 200,000 visitors each year, including decision-makers from the English language-teaching (ELT) sector, travel writers, tour operators, travel agents and business tourism buyers, as well as many thousands of holidaymakers looking for ideas and suggestions for their next short break or holiday destination.

One of the most affluent parts of Spain, Barcelona and its hinterland are the largest source of all outbound travellers from Spain – and second only to Madrid as a source of Spanish visitors for the island of Ireland.

Tourism Ireland’s manager in Spain, Barbara Wood said, "2014 was the strongest year ever for visitors to Ireland from Spain and we are undertaking another busy programme of promotions throughout 2015, to keep the momentum going and build on that growth.

2015 has got off to a positive start, with the most recent CSO figures showing growth of +12% in visitor numbers from Spain, for the December 2014 to February 2015 period."

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