Mayo operators attend launch of Tourism Ireland’s marketing plans
TOURISM Ireland has launched details of its marketing plans to promote Ireland overseas in 2016 and beyond at an event attended by Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe and industry leaders from around the country.
Among those attending from Mayo were Donal Healy of Ireland West Airport Knock Nora Heraty, Westport House Caravan and Camping Park, who heard that Tourism Ireland aims to surpass this year’s record performance in overseas tourism and welcome 8.2 million visitors to Ireland in 2016.
Such a result would represent growth of 4% over 2015 and deliver €4.4 billion to the Irish economy (an increase of almost 5%) next year.
To illustrate how much Irish tourism has bounced back since the downturn, a comparison of CSO figures for January to October 2015 versus the same period in 2010 shows superb growth in visitors from Britain (+20% in that five-year period), North America (+51%), Mainland Europe (+38%) and Australia and developing markets (+66%).
Tourism Ireland says factors working in our favour includ: new flights to Ireland, stronger economies in our key source markets, the strong Ireland ‘brand’ (or image) abroad, and favourable exchange rates for sterling and the dollar.
Other positives include Tourism Ireland’s strength in digital and social media (the organisation is the third most popular tourism board in the world on Facebook), the success of the Wild Atlantic Way, and the creation of Ireland's Ancient East. A new ad highlighting Ireland’s Ancient East was also unveiled at the launch and will be rolled out in January to 23 markets around the world.
Tourism Ireland will also promote Dublin - 'A Breath of Fresh Air' - in major markets throughout 2016, and aims to leverage the huge global popularity of Star Wars following the upcoming launch of Star Wars Episode VII - parts of which were filmed on Skellig Michael off the Kerry coast.
Latest estimates indicate that, by year end, 7.9 million people will have visited Ireland in 2015, representing an 11% increase over 2014, with growth recorded from all markets. Revenue generated by international visitors is expected to be almost €4.2 billion - a 16% increase over last year.