A SURVEY run by US travel industry magazine Travel Age West has voted Ireland the ‘destination with the highest client satisfaction in Europe’.

The other finalists in this category were Great Britain, Italy, Spain and France.

Tourism Ireland, which promotes Ireland abroad as a tourist destination and has organised a series of online seminars about Ireland on Travel Age West, welcomed the award win.

Joe Byrne, Tourism Ireland’s vice president for the US and Canada, said the company was “delighted that Ireland has been singled out for this award”. In a statement, Byrne said:

Tourism Ireland works closely with travel agents and tour operators across the US – to encourage them to sell more Ireland holidays and to feature more of our tourism products in their brochures and programmes; and it is wonderful for us to know that Ireland has delivered exceptional experiences to their clients.

Byrne also said that a 2010 Fáilte Ireland attitude survey showed Ireland at its highest satisfaction rating for visitors for years. Around 6.7m overseas visitors came to Ireland last year.

A survey by hotel online booking group Hotels.com recently found that Irish hotels offer the best value in Western Europe.

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