Two of the world’s top food bloggers have returned to the US after spending a week touring Ireland, sampling all that is good about Irish food.  Christopher Connolly and Amy Cao, from US based food blogging site Foodspotting.com, toured key locations as part of their weeklong culinary food expedition.  During their trip, the duo blogged to their 450,000 followers by showing them all that Ireland has to offer food enthusiasts. Welcoming the Bloggers to Ireland, Fáilte Ireland’s Director of Marketing, John Concannon, emphasised –
“Foodspotting.com is the perfect platform to promote the food of Ireland and this country as an important destination for the best dishes and beverages. Ireland has some of the best quality ingredients as well as its own unique cuisine and this partnership allows us to get that message across to the people who count in the US.
“Having the Foodspotting team in Ireland and blogging about Irish food and their experiences will go a long way in helping to ramping up Irish tourism’s presence online and through social media. In this day and age, if you are not online, you are nowhere and opportunities such as this are vital.”
Foodspotting.com is a highly regarded US based food blogging site that sets out to make it easy to find and share favourite foods using its website and mobile apps. Instead of simply reviewing restaurants, users can recommend their favourite dishes using photos as well as seeing what others have recommended during their travels.  It was named as one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2010.
Food is a central part of any visitor’s stay in Ireland.  Current research shows that approximately €2 out of every €5 spent by tourists in Ireland is spent on buying food and drink.  In 2009, close to €2 billion was spent by visitors on food and drink with overseas visitors accounting for 60% of this figure.