Cultivating tourism

TOP journalists and bloggers from Germany – representing various print and online publications with a combined readership of almost 3 million people, or potential German holidaymakers – are exploring the wonderful gardens in Ireland’s Ancient East this week, as guests of Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland.

Their action-packed itinerary includes some of Ireland’s top gardens – such as the Patthana Garden in Kiltegan, Hardymount Gardens near Tullow, Woodstock Gardens & Arboretum near Inistioge; the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens in Tramore and Coolcarrigan House & Gardens near Naas.

Earlier this year, Tourism Ireland launched a new strategy to boost tourism from Germany, setting out challenging and ambitious targets which will see the island of Ireland welcome 800,000 German visitors per year by 2021

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Tourism Ireland’s promotional drive for 2018 in Germany

TOURISM Ireland has kicked off its promotional drive for 2018 in the all-important German market – with a TV campaign which will be seen by millions of potential holidaymakers for Ireland. 

Germany is the third-largest market for tourism to the island of Ireland and 2017 was another record year from Germany when around 660,000 German visitors were welcomed.

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Tourism Ireland film highlights Ireland’s biggest traditional music festival

PLANNING ahead for next year? Have a look at this . . . four days, 17 unique venues, one great traditional music festival … Tourism Ireland has unveiled a new film called “Temple Bar TradFest 2017”. 

Every January, Ireland’s largest traditional music festival takes place in Dublin’s Temple Bar, with four great days of music and dance. 

The film is being promoted through Tourism Ireland’s social platforms, including Facebook (3.8 million fans worldwide), Twitter (379,000 followers) and YouTube.

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The Real Westeros

'Winterfell - Castle Ward, Strangford, County Down

TOURISM IRELAND shows visitors how to navigate the real-world Westeros. Tourism Ireland has unveiled a new film called “Game of Thrones: 3 Day Itinerary”, specially created to highlight #GameofThrones locations across Northern Ireland to fans and prospective visitors worldwide. 

The film shows visitors how to travel around the real-world Westeros in Northern Ireland in three days and features key filming locations like Winterfell, The Iron Islands, Dragonstone and many more. It includes stunning imagery of the locations used in HBO’s Game of Thrones, together with the names of the places in both the show and in #NorthernIreland.

The film is being promoted through Tourism Ireland’s social platforms, including Facebook (3.6 million fans worldwide), Twitter (345,000 followers) and YouTube.

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Picture Credit: By Ardfern - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org 7655505

Game of Thrones trail for Northern Ireland

TOURISM #IRELAND launched its latest campaign celebrating Northern Ireland as #GameofThrones Territory for the sixth year running. The campaign will roll out weekly until the end of season six at the end of June. 

A feature of the campaign is a series of ten intricately carved doors, depicting moments inspired by this season. The doors will be unveiled each week as season six unfolds. They will be carved from trees blown down in this winter’s storms at the Dark Hedges in Co. Antrim, which serves as the backdrop for the Kingsroad – perhaps the most iconic Game of Thrones location in Northern Ireland.

The doors will hang in pubs and other venues near filming locations across Northern Ireland, giving visitors a Game of Thrones Territory trail to follow. Tourism Ireland will release a mixture of short films and images from the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube in ten markets – including Great Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia.

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Chinese travel writers say ‘nǐ hǎo’ to Ireland

A GROUP of Chinese travel writers – with a combined audience of more than 4.5 million readers – has been visiting Dublin and Ireland’s Ancient East as guests of Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland. 

Their itinerary took in Dublin and County Meath.

James Kenny, Tourism Ireland’s manager China, said: ‘We are delighted that these influential Chinese journalists and bloggers have had the opportunity to experience some of the many things to see and do in Ireland for Chinese visitors. The aim of their fact-finding visit is to increase awareness of the island of Ireland to help secure a greater share of the four million Chinese visitors to Europe each year. Tourism Ireland aims to grow the number of Chinese visitors to the island of Ireland to 50,000 per year, by 2017.’

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Tourism Ireland targets India

TOURISM IRELAND’S CEO has made his first visit to #India, as the tourism board ramps up its promotions effort in the country.

Niall Gibbons travelled to India to meet the country’s travel trade, and to announce Tourism Ireland’s sponsorship of the Irish cricket teams for the upcoming ICC T20 #Cricket World Cup, which starts in India on March 8.

‘Sport-related tourism has emerged as a very significant element in world tourism in recent years,’ said Mr Gibbons. ‘Our sponsorship of the team in this year’s ICC T20 Cricket World Cup offers us a superb opportunity to highlight the island of #Ireland. It’s wonderful for us to be involved in a sport that has such a wide appeal in India and we look forward to connecting and communicating with a wide audience of cricket fans.’

Mr Gibbons noted that Ireland has seen a 25% increase in visitor arrivals from India ‘over the last few years’, and said he expects this trend to continue. This growth has been fuelled by the recently-launched British-Irish visa scheme which makes it easier for tourists to visit both Ireland and the UK in a single trip.

In 2016, Tourism Ireland will be engaging with the Indian travel trade and media through familiarization trips, workshops, and seminars.

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Ireland celebrates rise in inbound tourism

#IRELAND welcomed almost one million additional visitors in the first 11 months of 2015, 14% more than a year earlier, according to figures published by Tourism Ireland. 

Welcoming the result, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: ‘2015 has been a superb year for overseas tourism, with the figures indicating that it will be a record-breaking year, with more than eight million people arriving here during the January to November period – an increase of +14%, or almost one million additional overseas visitors, when compared to 2014.

‘Growth has been recorded from all of our markets around the world, with record numbers arriving here from North America. Ireland now welcomes 10% of all American visitors to Europe. We have also seen record numbers arriving here from Mainland Europe, and from our long-haul markets such as Australia, China, and India. I also welcome the continued strong performance from Britain, our largest market for overseas tourism.

‘In 2016, we will be pulling out all the stops to surpass this year’s record performance and to welcome 8.2 million visitors, delivering €4.4 billion (£3.22 billion) to the Irish economy.

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Ireland targets Spain in tourism drive

SPANISH travel agents have visited Ireland as guests of #TourismIreland and Aer Lingus. The agents work for Travelplan, a leading tour operator in #Spain. 

The group’s fact-finding itinerary – designed by Fáilte Ireland – included Newgrange and Dublin, with tours of St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Old Jameson Distillery and the Little Museum of Dublin. They also visited Glendalough and Powerscourt House and Gardens.

Says Barbara Wood, Tourism Ireland’s manager in Spain, said: ‘Spain is an important market for tourism to the island of Ireland and 2015 looks set to be another strong year for Spanish visitors. We have an extensive autumn campaign in full swing right now, aimed at boosting late-season travel to Ireland from Spain. Working with travel agents and tour operators, and inviting them to come and experience what’s on offer here, is a key element of that programme. Our aim is that when they return home, the travel agents will be even more enthusiastic about the destination, helping to secure a greater share of their business for Ireland.’

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Tourism promotion targets Spain for holidays in Ulster

COMMUTERS in #Barcelona are seeing advertisements for Belfast and Northern Ireland in metro stations and on buses on the city’s busy thoroughfares. #Tourism Ireland has teamed up with Visit Belfast and Vueling for a promotional campaign which aims to raise awareness of Belfast as a city break destination and to drive sales of Vueling flights from Barcelona to Belfast this autumn. The campaign also includes online advertising and e-marketing.

The campaign includes extensive online advertising on newspaper and travel websites. E-mail marketing will reach 1.3 million potential holidaymakers in this part of Spain and a further one million people on Vueling’s own database.

‘In 2014, we welcomed approximately 32,000 Spanish visitors to Northern Ireland, up by 23% on the previous year,’ says Barbara Wood, Tourism Ireland’s manager in Spain. ‘We are undertaking an extensive programme of promotions throughout 2015, to grow Spanish visitor numbers to Northern Ireland. Our campaign with Visit Belfast and Vueling is an important element of that programme, to boost travel to Northern Ireland during the autumn months.

‘As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated – they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism.’

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Ulster in drive for Australian tourists

AUSTRALIA offers significant potential for tourism to Northern Ireland, according to a new Tourism Ireland strategy. 

The three-year strategy for growth sets out ambitious targets which will see the number of Australian visitors grow by +20% by the end of 2017.

#Australia is the third most important market for tourism to Northern Ireland (after mainland Britain and the United States) in terms of visitor numbers and revenue.

The strategy highlights key factors working in Ulster’s favour: 

· Recent strong performance: since 2010, visitors from Australia to the island of #Ireland have grown by more than 40%; in 2014, more than 180,000 Australians visited the #island of Ireland. One-third of all Australian visitors include Northern Ireland in their itinerary.

· Strong cultural affinity: Ireland and Australia have many things in common, including language, heritage, sense of humour, love of sport … and both drive on the left.

· Improved air access: there are twice-daily, one-stop flights now available between Australia and Ireland (via the Middle East). Australians who are visiting Great Britain and mainland Europe can also use excellent connecting flights to Belfast.

· Australians are highly prized visitors; they travel throughout the year, stay longer (on average 12 nights), spend more (approximately £760 – almost double the average visitor spend), and like to get off the beaten track – so are more likely than other nationalities to tour rural areas.

Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: ‘Australia has performed well for #tourism to Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland in recent years and the future is undoubtedly bright. We believe this is a market of considerable potential over the coming years – given that these high-spending visitors travel right throughout the year and enjoy getting off the beaten track.’

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Picture Credit: Shrove Beach Oct 07 by NorthernCounties - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, Scrabo Tower near Newtownards (3) - geograph.org.uk - 775719 by Albert Bridge. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Tallest building in Ireland to be converted into a hotel

IRELAND’S tallest commercial building is to be transformed into a hotel. The 22-storey Windsor House office block in Belfast has been acquired by Hastings Hotels for £6.5 million.

Planning permission to convert the building into a hotel of ‘major city international quality’ will be submitted within a few weeks, according to the company which has six hotels in Ulster and one in Dublin. The hotel will see the creation of 150 jobs in the hospitality sector.

The building has dominated the Belfast skyline since it was built in 1974.

The hotel will see the creation of 150 jobs in the hospitality sector.

Hastings Hotels said: ‘Tourism in Northern Ireland continues to thrive and it is ideal timing to extend our portfolio of hotels with more high profile events coming to the city as well as an increase in business tourism which will be helped by the opening of the £29.5 million expansion of the Belfast Waterfront next year.’

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Picture Credit: Windsor House, Belfast  by Albert Bridge. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

A year of Yeats

THIS year marks 150 years since the birth of the Irish poet and Nobel laureate, W.B. Yeats, so Yeats 2015 is a key theme for Tourism Ireland in its promotions around the world.

Vanessa Markey at Tourism Ireland’s UK office says: ‘We are taking every opportunity to shine a spotlight on Yeats 2015 in Britain and elsewhere around the world this year – leveraging the tourism benefits of the anniversary and showcasing the island of Ireland as a destination with a rich literary heritage.’

A number of Yeats events will take place throughout the year.

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Picture Credit:  Statue des Schriftstellers William Butler Yeats by Stadtfotograph via Wikimedia Commons

Ireland sets 10 million tourist target

IRELAND’S tourism industry is aiming to attract 10 million visitors this year, contributing €5 billion (£3.9 billion) to the economy and helping to sustain 250,000 jobs.

Tourism Ireland’s plan will prioritize markets offering the best return on investment in terms of holiday visitors and revenue — Britain, North America, and mainland Europe. Markets with high potential will also be targeted, chiefly China and India.

Ireland and the UK have signed a visa agreement that will permit international tourists to apply for one travel permit to visit both countries.

It will apply initially to Chinese visitors and, later, to those from India.

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Picture Credit: "Dingle peninsula panorama" by Steve Ford Elliott - Flickr. via Wikimedia Commons.

US travel agents take a look at Ulster

A GROUP of leading travel agents from 18 states across the US have visited Ulster as guests of Tourism Ireland and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

Their fact-finding trip included Belfast, the Causeway Coastal Route, and Londonderry.

Alison Metcalfe at Tourism Ireland said: ‘Familiarization visits such as these are extremely important, as the travel agents get to experience at first-hand the wealth of things to see and do here for American holidaymakers.’

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Picture Credit: "Coastal path at dusk - geograph.org.uk - 593655" by Ross - From geograph.org.uk. via Wikimedia Commons