Wild Atlantic Way initiative to boost British market
THE Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin, joined Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland to launch a new €1.8 million initiative specially designed to boost tourist numbers from Britain to the Wild Atlantic Way.
A €1.35 million marketing campaign in Britain will be complemented by a Fáilte Ireland €500,000 programme to support businesses along the Wild Atlantic Way to position themselves to benefit from the campaign, as well as to boost its own marketing campaigns in Northern Ireland.
Entitled Wonders of the Wild Atlantic Way, the campaign will be rolled out by Tourism Ireland in Britain in two phases. Phase one will happen in February and March, with phase two following in September and October.
The campaign aims to entice British holidaymakers to visit the Wild Atlantic Way during the off-season months. It will highlight ease of direct access from six British gateway cities to Knock, Cork, Kerry, Shannon, Donegal and City of Derry airports.
Minister Griffin noted that whilst the performance of the tourism sector in 2017 was exceptionally good, the one negative aspect was the decline in the number of overseas visitors to Ireland from Britain.
“Britain still remains our largest tourism market,” he noted. “Therefore, it is vital that we continue to strive to make Ireland an attractive destination for British tourists in light of the uncertainty created by Brexit.”
The CEO of Tourism Ireland, Niall Gibbons, added: “We are very much aware that Brexit has impacted on consumer confidence and, in turn, on outbound travel from Britain – including to Ireland. The depreciation of sterling against the euro means that value for money continues to be a key message for us in Britain. An important element of this campaign is the cooperative advertising with airlines flying to airports along the Wild Atlantic Way, highlighting good value offers and ease of access, and helping to convert interest into business.”
Paul Keeley, director of commercial development with Fáilte Ireland, said their additional funding will allow the organisation to work with more businesses along the Wild Atlantic Way and to assist them to best position themselves to benefit from increased marketing in Britain, including promotional work with UK travel trade, sales programmes and additional promotion in the golf sector.
“Furthermore,” he said, “as Northern Irish visitors are also an important part of the visitor mix, we will also be investing additional funding for a targeted Fáilte Ireland marketing campaign to increase business from the north.”
Great Britain is Ireland’s largest market, accounting for almost half (47%) of all overseas visitors and almost one third (28%) of overseas tourism revenue in 2016. In 2017, around 4.7 million visitors were welcomed from Great Britain to the island of Ireland.