In this Issue:

Tourism News News from Us Internet News Recipe Final Thought

Tourism News

Special Olympics

Céad Míle Fáilte and the best of luck to the athletes and teams who began arriving over the weekend to compete in the 2003 Special Olympics. Thankfully worries about Sars have not excluded any of the teams. Senegal however are unable to attend much to the disapointment of host town Ballygar Co. Galway. Full details of events, venues etc. are available @: www.2003specialolympics.com

Cork Airport Expansion

Aer Rianta signed a €:140 million contract with Rohcon for the expansion of Cork Airport on June 3^rd. The development will give the airport an annual capacity of 3 million passengers. The new facilities are expected to be fully operational within two years. Sod turning is to be performed by Bertie Ahern on the 26^th of June. more>>

Ryanair organised a protest at the Aer Rianta Annual Results presentation 12/06/03, "Mourning the death of Irish Tourism" with the Grim Reaper and a funeral cortege. Paul Fitzsimmons, Ryanair’s Head of Communications, criticised Aer Rianta for wasting taxpayers money and strangling Irish Tourism for years. more>>

In a letter to the Irish Times 10/06/03, Paul Fitzsimmons compared the €:140 million cost of the Cork airport expansion to that of a recent expansion at Frankfurt-Hahn airport, with more than twice the passenger capacity, for only €:11 million.
Frankfurt-Hahn Terminal 2

2002 Travel Statistics

CSO Tourism Travel statistics and revenue for 2002

Visits to Ireland	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
	thousands
Total Overseas Visits	5,716	6,068	6,310	5,990	6,065
Route of Travel
Air Cross-Channel	2,570	2,836	3,047	2,969	3,073
Sea Cross-Channel	1,753	1,677	1,518	1,313	1,335
Continental European	974	1,065	1,187	1,170	1,173
Transatlantic	419	489	561	539	484
Area of Residence
Great Britain	3,383	3,558	3,559	3,462	3,579
Other Europe	1,262	1,333	1,453	1,357	1,392
USA and Canada	855	943	1,043	912	849
Other Areas	216	233	256	260	245
Reason for Journey
Business	891	994	1,074	975	906
Tourist	3,097	-	-	-	-
Holiday/Leisure/Recreation	-	3,306	3,346	3,177	3,242
Visit to Friends/Relatives	1,290	1,439	1,564	1,566	1,603
Other	438	328	328	273	314

News from us

Travel Directories Ireland, Irelands only multilingual online travel directory, can now be accessed with the following domains:
www.eirtravel.info
www.eiraccom.com
www.accommodation-directory-ireland.com

To view our logs: www.dirl.com/logs/
To Join: www.dirl.com/join.htm

Internet News

Nua.ie online statistics and trends, reports that online travel sales in Western Europe increased 53% during 2002 and are expected to increase 32% during 2003, with the UK and Germany the largest online travel markets in Europe. more>>

Bugbear Virus

There is a new variant of the bugbear email virus doing the rounds. As usual the only way to be safe is to keep your antivirus software updated regualarly.
More info and removal instructions

Recipe

Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients:
8 oz. Sieved Flour
5 ozs. Butter
2½ ozs. Icing Sugar
2 Egg yolks
4-5 drops Vanilla Essence
½ Pint Double Cream
Fresh Fruit - Strawberries In Season

Put flour on work board. Make a well in centre. Put in butter, Icing Sugar, eggs and essence. Work to a smooth paste. Cool for one hour. Divide pastery and roll into 2x9" rounds ( about ¼" thick). Put on baking sheet bake 15-18 minutes at gas mark 4. Remove and trim while warm. Cut one round into eight rectangular pieces. Cool. Mix fruit with some whipped cream. Spread on plain round. Cover with retangular pieces. Dust with icing sugar. Decorate with cream and fruit.

Enjoy.

Final Thought