ICCTA Winter Update 2025
Selected November highlights and 2026 opportunities
Hubei Harps Bring Gaelic Games to Central China
One of the standout stories of the month was the launch of Hubei Harps, a new Gaelic games club in Wuhan and an encouraging example of Irish sporting culture finding a local home in central China.
The club's first activities brought together participants from different countries, while the launch evening also drew support from Ireland's diplomatic presence in China.
For ICCTA, this kind of development matters because sport can be a practical and welcoming entry point for cultural exchange, community building and future destination storytelling.
Ireland-China Early Childhood Exchange in Dublin
Another valuable exchange took place in Dublin, where a visiting delegation from the China Welfare Institute Kindergarten met Irish early-years providers and sector leaders.
The programme created space for practical discussion around pedagogy, quality standards and future study visits between Irish and Chinese early childhood settings.
Although different from tourism promotion in format, exchanges like this strengthen trust, deepen institutional links and create the kind of relationship base that often supports wider cooperation over time.
GSIS 2025 Changsha Shows the Value of Connected Networks
In Changsha, GSIS 2025 provided another strong example of how relationship-building and on-the-ground coordination can support more ambitious cross-border cooperation.
The forum brought together Irish, European and Chinese participants across several sectors, showing how earlier exchange activity can evolve into broader platform-building and business-facing dialogue.
For ICCTA members and partners, this is a useful reminder that culture, tourism and trusted introductions often help create the conditions for more substantial cooperation later on.
From Hainan to 2026 Programme Planning
The issue also looked ahead to new opportunities, including ICCTA's invitation to Irish tourism businesses to engage with CITM 2025 in Hainan and related familiarisation activity in south China.
At the same time, forward planning was already under way for early 2026, including heritage-focused activity in Hubei and a new China-Ireland youth culture and technology exchange programme in Shanghai.
Taken together, these strands show ICCTA's wider role: not just reporting activity after it happens, but helping partners stay close to upcoming openings in tourism, culture and exchange.
Explore Ireland-China tourism and cultural opportunities
If you would like to discuss partnerships, destination promotion or cultural exchange, please get in touch.