A Galway man who is the vice president of a major German tourism organisation was given a special honour by the Mayor of Killarney recently.
Kevin Keogh, who is originally from Sea Road, was inducted into the Order of Inisfallen by the Mayor of Killarney Cllr Michael Gleeson at a ceremony held in Killarney.
The Order was created to enable the town to formally recognise the economic contribution made by people from outside it, especially those in the tourism sector.
Born in Galway in 1966, Mr Keogh is a graduate of the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, graduating from there in 1990 with a Diploma in Business Studies, specialising in international marketing management.
Having worked during his college holidays in the Pirelli Tyre Company in Germany, he joined the T.N.T. Corporation on graduation as their regional sales and customer services manager for Central Germany.
In 1996, he was appointed vice president of sales and marketing for DERTOUR. He is directly responsible for 300 employees, a turnover in excess of €1.5 billion, and deals with over 10,000 travel agents from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He is married and has two children, Daniel (14 ) and Stephen (5 ).
Killarney Chamber of Tourism and Commerce executive Jerry O’Grady said by selecting Kevin Keogh the Chamber acknowledged the “tremendous positive influence” he and the organisation he represents, DERTOUR, have had on the growth of tourism over a number of years.
Kevin Keogh stated he was deeply honoured to become the 12th recipient of this unique award since its inception in 2005.
“I gratefully accept it on behalf of my full team in DERTOUR and all of the German and Austrian travel agents who have so much enjoyed the 2009 Resiseakademie in Killarney which has been the best hosted event that I have attended since joining DERTOUR 13 years ago.
“I am extremely impressed with the unity and vision of the tourism professionals in Killarney. In the future we will be using Killarney as an example to other tourism authorities around the world about how best to do what is vital to succeed in tourism today.”
Killarney Chamber president Tom Randles said Kevin Keogh’s DERTOUR organisation refers thousands of German and Austrian visitors to Ireland every year, many of whom are directed to Killarney.
“In this current year, under his direction, Ireland and Killarney were selected to host the prestigious DERTOUR Resiseakademie when some 900 German and Austrian travel specialists are in Ireland for two weeks for in-house workshops with tremendous spin-off potential for our tourism industry over the coming years.”
