Guest speaker at the USA Summer Soirée and Ambassador of the US to Ireland, Claire D. Cronin, reiterated the United States’ strategy for inbound tourism to the tune of ninety million visitors to US shores over the next five years.
The ambassador addressed the audience at the USA Summer Soirée, “US Secretary Gina Raimondo has released 2022 National Travel & Tourism Strategy on June 6th 2022 and its goal is to attract 90 million visitors by 2027. And as we rebuild, we have an opportunity to create a more equitable, more resilient and more sustainable travel industry, and that is what the National Travel & Tourism Strategy sets out to achieve.”
Ambassador Cronin continued, “The [US] embassy’s mission is to strengthen our people-to-people ties and there is no way that is better at doing that than literally experiencing each other’s countries in person.”
She shared, “More than 31.5 million Americans claim Irish ancestry. Twenty-three US presidents, exactly half, trace their roots to Ireland including my favourite, President Biden, of course.”
She detailed her Irish family ties which came from the west of Ireland, “My deep feeling of connection to this great country is highlighted by my ancestors who hailed from counties Donegal, Cork, Clare and Galway” which charmed the audience who responded with rapturous applause.
