USA Soirèe 2025- A Fantastic Night For Emerging Partnerships

We had the pleasure of heading along to this year’s USA Summer Soirée in the Shelbourne Hotel—a room full of energy, ideas, and some of the most passionate people in Irish travel.

It was a night that celebrated the ever-growing bond between Ireland and the US travel market. From booming bookings to new direct flights to places like Vegas, Nashville and Detroit, there’s a real sense of momentum right now.

Clare Dunne from the ITAA opened the evening with a strong message about the role of travel agents and the importance of keeping Irish travellers informed and inspired—and to be fair, we couldn’t agree more.

We really enjoyed all the speakers on the night, but Rachel Lenda’s talk about Connecticut stood out for us. It’s a state we’ve always been curious about—steeped in history and, apparently, serving up some of the best pizza in the world. We genuinely think it’s one of those hidden gems that deserves more attention from Irish travellers.

It was a great evening, and we’d like thank the entire TravelMedia team—especially Colm McDonnell—for keeping everything running so smoothly on the night.

Special note to all guest speakers who done an amazing job on the night,

Clare Dunne, CEO of the ITAA

Eoin McGloughlin, SVP Aviation Business, Dublin Airport

Jenny Rafter, Head of Global Leisure Sales, Aer Lingus

Michael W. Shea, CEO of Bradley International Airport and Executive Director of the Connecticut Airport Authority

Rachel Lenda, Director of Tourism, Visit CT

Michele Goldberg, VP of Marketing, Explore Western Mass

Julie Greenhill, Director of GEC TR, Philadelphia CVB

Jackie Ennis, VP of Global Trade Development, Brand USA

We’re delighted to be emerging players in the travel media space—and we know there’ll be fantastic partnerships ahead