The Today Show spotlighted Irish tourism last week in the U.S., but now it’s Irish Stew’s turnto tell the tale to its global audience through the eyes of Stephen Cotter, managing director of CIE Tours International, a company with over 90 years of history bringing people to experience Ireland and beyond.
With cohost John Lee flying solo this time, the episode explores CIE Tours’ unlikely origins in the International Eucharistic Congress of 1932, the dynamics of its Irish Government ownership, its impressive international scale and reach, why it’s expanded beyond Ireland’s shores, the “secret sauce” that keeps visitors coming back, the off-the-beaten-track experiences it’s offering, Stephen’s photo op with the Taoiseach that made national news, and why the tourism industry has such a hold on him.
"The business just grabs you. There's never a dull moment," he says, reflecting on such non-dull moments like economic downturns and the COVID pandemic. “Every few years, you have something that's going to knock you back. There's always a challenge that keeps it exciting."
In a high-tech world, Stephen cherishes CIE’s high-touch moments. “What I like most about it is when I meet our customers. We’re just so privileged and so honored to work in a business that’s putting a smile on our customers’ faces.”
He knows he has an excellent product to sell in Ireland and all the CIE Tours destinations with a strong slate of tours on offer for each, but to him it’s the guides, not the itineraries, which keeps people coming back to CIE Tours.
“The biggest value on our trips is what the driver and the tour guide add to the experience. That is our ‘secret sauce,’ the crew working in all our destinations--Italy, Iceland Scotland, Spain and in Ireland,” he says. “You would not believe the testimonials that we get back. People just fall in love with the crew.”
The episode explores Stephen’s Dundalk boyhood, his early business experience bidding atBelfast furniture auctions, a marriage proposal involving a lamb in Sligo, and a framed photograph of the Taoiseach's father that turned a three-minute protocol stop into a major media opportunity.
And in a tourism-centric episode, it’s not surprising that the conversation might begin with the Burren, but it’s the bovine slant to the opening that’s unexpected.
"If you'd said to me 10 years ago, I'm going to be talking about cattle, no-fence collars and GPS, I would have said you were mad," he says of a CIE Tours sustainability initiative. The program facilitates cattle-grazing on the Burren’s winter uplands, which suppresses unwanted plant species from taking over and encourages the region's rare flowers to return each spring, which also encourages the return of tourists. Additionally, the relative ease of managing cattle remotely through GPS collars is helping keep young farmers in business bymaking grazing on this marginal land viable.
And what business conversation today doesn’t touch on AI? While embracing AI’s efficiencies, Stephen says, "People like people. Hopefully in my lifetime, that's never replaced by any AI computer or AI bot."
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• Media Partner: IrishCentral (https://www.irishcentral.com)
Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 28; Total Episode Count: 169
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