It was wet and miserable, as details of the up-coming Holiday World Experience were announced earlier this week in a Dublin restaurant. Maureen Ledwith, director of the Holiday and Leisure Fair, was ready to wave a magic wand and take us away to all kinds of exotic locations . . . Botswana, Arizona, the Caribbean, west Cork. There will be more than 70 countries and 700 exhibitors at this year's event, which kicks off in Belfast later this month before moving to Dublin and then Cork.
Brendan Moran, chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents' Association and brother of the famous footballer, Kevin Moran, would love to return to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. "It was spectacular," he says with a dreamy look in his eyes. "I spent hours looking at it." Fergus Kilkelly, president of the ITTA and based in Castlebar, Co Mayo, wearing an impressive chain of office, says everyone in the west of Ireland after years of emigration is well accustomed to travel. And, he adds, "they like a lot of space". Africa fits the bill, he believes. Travel writer, Maxine Jones, who was in Barbados before Christmas, is checking out the latest hot destinations. It's not all lying on a beach, you know.
Over the blackened chicken, more tips are whispered across the table at Tante Zoe's Restaurant, which specialises in Cajun Creole cuisine. Jane Lehane, of the Visit USA Committee, says Florida and California are the two most popular destinations for Irish holiday-makers, but she herself - and this is top secret - would love to go to New Orleans.