Tag Archives: Tourism Ireland

Tourism Ireland’s annual Global Greening initiative, to celebrate the island of Ireland and St Patrick, has begun in earnest – kicking off the organisation’s major first half promotional drive to grow overseas tourism in 2017. The annual initiative sees a host of major landmarks around the world turn green for St Patrick’s Day. In Tampere in Finland, James Lenihan, originally from Newmarket-on-Fergus, joined the ‘greening’ fun, when he and his friends took part in the first ever ‘greened’ Irish-Finnish fishing championship. The Siilinkari lighthouse and Näsinneula observation tower provided the green backdrop.  

Tourism Ireland has unveiled a new film about the annual Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, which was hosted in Ennis in 2016 and returns there in 2017. The film shows some of the highlights of the Fleadh Cheoil in 2016, including Irish dancers and traditional pub sessions in Ennis. The film captures the atmosphere of this great music festival – encouraging potential visitors around the world to come and find out more about Ireland’s incredible culture and sample the Fleadh Cheoil for themselves. The film is being promoted through Tourism Ireland’s social platforms, including Facebook (3.8 million fans worldwide), Twitter (379,000 followers) and YouTube.

Tourism Ireland has unveiled a new online film for St Patrick’s Day 2017, to encourage prospective holidaymakers to come and visit Ireland this year. The 60-second film includes wonderful footage shot around Ireland, including the Cliffs of Moher, interwoven with some great images from Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative, which sees hundreds of famous landmarks and iconic sites across the globe illuminated in green each year to celebrate St Patrick’s Day on this Friday. The film is being promoted through Tourism Ireland’s social platforms, including Facebook with 3.8 million fans worldwide; Twitter with 379,000 followers and YouTube. Last month, Tourism Ireland announced details of some of the famous attractions and sites around the world which will join its Global Greening initiative this year to mark St Patrick’s Day. From Rome to Rio and from London to Las Vegas, a host of major landmarks and iconic sites around the world will be illuminated in green this week – including the Colosseum, …

Over 40 British leading meetings and events professionals enjoyed a flavour of the Mid-West, at the annual ‘Ireland Meets the West End’ gathering in London this week. The B2B event saw the buyers meet, and do business with, some 33 tourism businesses from Ireland, including the Shannon Region Conference & Sports Bureau. ‘Ireland Meets the West End’ is organised by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland, to grow business tourism from Britain to the island of Ireland. It proved to be a valuable opportunity for the Irish companies to showcase and sell their product for 2017 and to communicate what is unique about Ireland as a world-class destination for doing business. David Boyce, Tourism Ireland’s deputy head of Great Britain, said, “Business tourism is an important, high yield sector and Tourism Ireland has undertaken a busy programme of activity throughout 2016, to grow this type of tourism. Our promotions have been highlighting our world-class venues …

Shannon Ferries in Killimer joined Tourism Ireland at the Classic Motor Show in Birmingham over the weekend in a drive to entice British tourists to the county by highlighting car touring holidays in Clare. The Classic Motor Show is an annual event which takes place over three days at the NEC in Birmingham. It attracts around 65,000 people, offering an excellent platform to spread the world about car touring holidays around Ireland among car enthusiasts – and prospective holidaymakers for Ireland – in Britain. Vanessa Markey, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Great Britain, said: “The Classic Motor Show was another excellent opportunity to highlight our superb driving routes, including the spectacular Wild Atlantic Way. Tourism Ireland is actively promoting longer-stay holidays and encouraging British travellers to come and discover Ireland by car. Visitors who use a car on holidays tend to stay longer, spend more and are more likely to visit more than one region. “Since the UK referendum on Brexit, …

Tourism Ireland, together with 13 Irish tourism companies, including Dromoland Castle, is preparing to undertake a week-long sales mission to Australia and New Zealand next month – to grow tourism from both markets. The sales mission, which takes place from November 14-21, will target some 300 influential travel agents, tour operators, airlines and travel journalists in the key cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The objective is to engage with travel professionals in the four cities who are currently selling the island of Ireland, or who have strong potential to sell the destination – and to encourage them to extend their Ireland offering, or to include Ireland for the first time, in their future brochures and programmes. Business links between the tourism companies from Ireland and the influential travel professionals in these markets will be strengthened during the sales mission. The island of Ireland has seen very good growth in visitors from Australia and New Zealand over the past …

An Italian TV crew has been filming along the Wild Atlantic Way for an episode of Geo & Geo, a popular magazine show that airs on one of Italy’s national TV stations, Rai 3. The TV crew’s visit was supported by Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland and their filiming will be broadcast next December, showcasing the spectacular scenery of the Wild Atlantic Way to more than one million viewers across Italy. Niamh Kinsella, Tourism Ireland’s manager Italy, said, “We were delighted that the Geo & Geo TV crew decided to film along the Wild Atlantic Way. With about 1 million viewers per episode, it’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase the Clare to a huge Italian audience – helping to inspire them to come and explore the landscapes and locations which will feature in the show for themselves.” In 2015, we welcomed about 321,400 Italian visitors to Ireland, up +25% on 2014.  

A media group from Germany, Spain and the US are in the Burren this week to experience and sample one of Ireland’s best tourism and gastronomy destinations. Included in the visiting group is Frances Folsom who writes for the Boston Globe and Dallas Morning News, which have a combined circulation of over two million. The trip, organised by Fáilte Ireland, in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, will allow the journalists to enjoy the vast selection of seasonal and local produce on the County Clare leg of the Wild Atlantic Way. Welcoming the group to Ireland, John Mulcahy, Fáilte Ireland’s head of Food Tourism, said, “We welcome the opportunity to showcase our island, and indeed The Burren, with its range of food trails, festivals, farmer’s markets. “With the emergence of a distinctive Irish cuisine, our intention is clear; Ireland aims to become one of the world’s hottest new culinary destination and we want to highlight this to our visiting media where they …