11 Nov 2025

Make it Here: Lunch & Learn Webinar

Carolyn Boyd (Tourism NI) and Jill O’Reilly (O’Reilly People Management) delivered an engaging session that explored how Northern Ireland’s tourism industry could champion Good Jobs and strengthen its workforce for sustainable growth.

Tourism NI was committed to promoting quality employment across the sector — from marketing initiatives that shifted perceptions, to partnerships that created clear career pathways, and direct engagement with employers to make tourism a best-in-class industry to work in.

Recognising the clear industry need for an engaged and skilled workforce, Tourism NI launched a further wave of its successful “Make it Here” campaign — showcasing the exciting range of careers, opportunities, and people that make Northern Ireland’s tourism and hospitality sector thrive.

Jill O’Reilly also highlighted the range of free e-learning people management supports on MyTourismNI.com. By focusing on these modules, businesses were able to tackle key challenges such as rising costs, staff shortages, and tighter margins. The smartest investment organisations could make at that time didn’t cost a penny  it was in their people.

This session explored:

• The strategic importance of investing in people and skills development

• How businesses could align with the latest campaign activity and maximise their people power

• Practical ways to enhance productivity, staff retention, and customer experience

• The wider impact of a strong, skilled workforce on regional growth and business success

Why Watch?

People have always been at the heart of tourism  one of the most people-intensive sectors globally. With over 70,000 jobs and 6,000 businesses, 70% of which were based outside Belfast, tourism remained central to regional prosperity.

This recorded session provides practical insights and demonstrates how the industry was working together through initiatives like Make it Here to ensure Northern Ireland’s tourism sector remained competitive, resilient, and people-focused.

The webinar recording can be accessed by clicking the YouTube link below.