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‘Influencers' tap into West Cork's appeal

November 23rd, 2018 7:05 PM

By Emma Connolly

Rob Kenny taking a selfie with Niamh Cullen, Lisa Jordan, Barry Looney of the West Cork Hotel, and Gary O'Donovan. (Photo: Anne Minihane)

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Skibbereen's businesses enjoyed exposure to an online audience of over 700,000 when some of the country's top social media ‘influencers' visited the town last weekend. 

SKIBBEREEN’S businesses enjoyed exposure to an online audience of over 700,000 when some of the country’s top social media ‘influencers’ visited the town last weekend. 

Olympic rower Gary O’Donovan, along with fellow Corkonian Lisa Jordan, Niamh Cullen and Rob Kenny, were on the road as part of the  Visa #TapintoIreland trip. 

The second annual marketing event for Visa saw the Irish digital influencers embark on a three-day ‘Best of Ireland’ road-trip. 

They visited a range of restaurants and bars hand-picked by their social media followers and paid with Visa contactless cards throughout their trip. The purpose of the campaign was to celebrate the increasing number of places that accept contactless payments. Gary brought the crew to his home town of Skibbereen where they checked into the West Cork Hotel, with all four influencers sharing footage of themselves checking in last Friday night and enjoying its trademark hospitality. 

On Saturday, they visited Kalbos restaurant on North Street run by Siobhan O’Callaghan, whose legendary confectionary got plenty of coverage. They also dropped into Designs on Main St after Eimear Byrne, daughter of owner Finola, won a 2fm competition to get the shop on the itinerary. 

Finola said it was a really exciting morning, with each one of the influencers nicer than the next. 

Before departing, they also swung by the town’s now-famous rowing club, where Gary had Lisa, Rob and Niamh demonstrated their ‘techniques’ on the club machines. 

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