CIE Tours celebrates 91 years in business this year and is the largest operator of guided tours to Ireland in the North American market. In 2022, CIE Tours hosted more than 25,000 visitors on tours in Ireland.
MORRISTOWN, NJ – At its 31st Annual Awards of Excellence on February 8, 2023, CIE Tours, leading tour operator for vacations to Ireland, recognized those hotels, attractions and restaurants that were top contributors to the company’s overall guest satisfaction rating of 94.6% in 2022. This year’s awards were hosted at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin after a two-year pandemic hiatus.
Launched in 1990, the Awards of Excellence recognize Ireland’s hospitality ambassadors who promote Irish tourism by providing consistently excellent experiences for travelers. Award recipients were selected based on post-tour feedback received from nearly 20,000 customers surveyed throughout 2022. Each of the CIE Tours partners who qualified for an award delivered an exceptional welcome to visitors, achieving a customer satisfaction rating of more than 92%.
CIE Tours celebrates 91 years in business this year and is the largest operator of guided tours to Ireland in the North American market. In 2022, CIE Tours hosted more than 25,000 visitors on tours in Ireland.
Recipients include fourteen overall award winners who achieved the highest customer rating in the following categories:
- Best 5-star hotel: Grand Central Hotel, Belfast
- Best 4-star hotel: Cabra Castle Hotel, Cavan
- Best 3-star hotel: Dooley’s Hotel, Waterford
- Best Hotel Accommodation: Dunraven Adare Hotel, Limerick
- Best Hotel Dinner: Ballygarry Estate Hotel & Spa, Kerry
- Best Hotel Service & Hospitality: Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin
- Best Event Dinner/Entertainment: The Crosskeys Inn, Antrim
- Special Dinner Feature: Killeen House Hotel, Killarney, Kerry
- Best Tour Feature: Marine Bar, Waterford
- Best Walking Tour: Westport Walking Tour, Mayo
- Best Visit: Cliffs of Moher, Clare
- Best Lunch: Taylors Three Rock, Dublin
- Best Sheep Dog Trial: Atlantic Sheepdogs, Sligo
- National Heritage Award: Brendan Ferris Sheep Dog Trials, Kerry
Merit Awards were also presented to 54 hotels and tourist attractions that also achieved a customer service rating of 92% or higher.
In congratulating the award winners, Elizabeth Crabill, CEO of CIE Tours, said, “The Irish vacation experience is unique, and its popularity is evident in the strong rebound we witnessed once international travel re-opened following the pandemic. It’s particularly gratifying to see overall customer satisfaction ratings nearly identical to 2019.”
CIE Tours is committed to providing an excellence in travel and uses multiple systems to gauge customer satisfaction. The annual Awards of Excellence are determined by surveys that guests complete toward the end of their stay, but the company also collects post-stay surveys from guests after they return home using the web-based Feefo platform. CIE Tours recently won a Feefo “2023 Trusted Service Award” in recognition of their excellence in customer service with a 2022 average service rating between 4.0-4.4.
Crabill continued, “The encouraging pipeline of bookings for the coming year are ahead of expectations, and we look forward to ensuring that partners and host communities continue to benefit from our success in attracting visitors to travel with CIE Tours to Ireland.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
