How Fáilte Ireland Supports Regional Development and Local Communities

Fáilte Ireland approaches regional development by combining national tourism strategy with locally targeted supports: it develops destinations in ways intended to benefit communities across Ireland, and it gives individual tourism businesses a route into that work through funding, training, expert advice and toolkits. If you run a tourism business and want to know how your area or your company can take part, the practical starting point is the "Regional developments" area of failteireland.ie and the support finder organised by what you are trying to achieve.

What "regional development" means on failteireland.ie

The site frames its overall purpose as supporting a competitive tourism sector, helping businesses grow, and developing destinations that benefit communities across Ireland. Regional development sits inside that wider sustainable tourism growth agenda rather than being a separate programme.

Two things follow from that framing:

• Destination-level work and business-level support are connected. Developing a destination is not only about marketing a place; it runs alongside supports that help the businesses inside it become more competitive and sustainable.
• Community benefit is stated as an outcome. The site describes destinations being developed to benefit communities, so regional development is presented as something that should show up locally, not just in national visitor numbers.

How businesses plug into regional development

The site's main entry point is a support finder built around three routes: By Support Type, By Sector, and By Goal. The goal-based route is the most useful if your interest is regional or destination development, because it starts from what you are trying to achieve rather than from a programme name.

The stated goals are:

A business contributing to its local destination typically works across several of these at once — for example, improving competitiveness while developing staff — so it is worth checking more than one goal rather than picking a single category.

Current programmes with a regional or local angle

The page highlights several named supports. These are the concrete examples of how national programmes reach individual businesses:

• Find Yourself on a Short Break — campaign toolkits, imagery and promotional assets that businesses can use to attract short-break bookings across Ireland. This is a destination-promotion route: using shared campaign assets helps put a region in front of visitors planning a break.
• F&B 360° — tailored supports for food and beverage businesses to increase profitability, including one-to-one support, a customised roadmap, clinics for specific challenges, and expert masterclasses. The site invites businesses to express interest.
• Climate Action Programme — expert guidance, practical tools and a tailored sustainability action plan aimed at improving cost efficiency, reducing emissions and future-proofing the business. The site invites applications.

The sustainability programme is the clearest link between business-level action and the site's sustainable growth positioning: cost and emissions reductions are presented as things a business does for itself, with the destination-level benefit following from that.

Research and insights that inform local decisions

Regional and local planning needs data, and the site publishes research under Research & insights, including economic analysis and visitor insights. Examples listed on the page:

• Business of Tourism Report 2026 — tourism data, trends and business opportunities from 2025 performance (listed as July 2026, 5 min read).
• Irish Tourism Quarterly Economic Update March 2026 — benchmarking against 2025 tourism data and planning for 2026 (March 2026, 4 min read).
• Summer travel in 2025: what visitor choices mean for your business — using summer travel insights to plan value, experiences and off-peak demand (November 2025, 22 min read).
• Decoding Gen Z on the Move — shaping experiences, content and offers around Gen Z behaviour (September 2025, 5 min read).

For a business or community group thinking about its area, the off-peak demand angle in the summer travel piece is the most directly relevant to spreading visitor activity beyond peak periods.

Seeing what it looks like in practice

The site also carries case examples under "Real impact. Real results.", including a digital and technology story on how Alive Outside adventure centre transformed its outdoor business, and a people and culture piece following a career from hospitality training to the Guinness Storehouse. These are useful as illustrations of the kinds of change the supports are meant to produce, though they describe individual businesses rather than regional outcomes.

How to follow or take part in your area

1. Start with the goal, not the programme. Use the support finder's "By Goal" route and select the outcome closest to your situation.
2. Check the regional angle. Look at the "Regional developments" section of the site for activity connected to your part of Ireland.
3. Use the campaign assets if you want visibility. The Find Yourself on a Short Break toolkits and imagery are the most direct way to tie your business into a national promotion.
4. Express interest or apply where invited. F&B 360° uses an "Express interest" step; the Climate Action Programme uses "Apply now". Note that the page does not state eligibility criteria, deadlines or costs for these programmes, so confirm those details on the programme pages themselves before committing time.
5. Ground your plan in the published data. Use the Business of Tourism Report and the quarterly economic update to benchmark before you decide where to invest effort.

The main limitation to be aware of: the page describes what the supports are for, but not who qualifies, what they cost, or how long applications stay open. Treat the support finder as a signpost and verify specifics on each programme's own page.