The Wild Atlantic Way is one hour from winning even more tourists for 2018 thanks to a world-first social media competition that has seen Shannon Airport shortlisted for a Cologone, Germany route.
Shannon will vie with two other airports – Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Trapani in Italy – in a vote-off in the first ever Facebook competition for an airline service.
The novel competition by Eurowings offers the opportunity to regions to have a direct service to Cologne on its summer schedule for next year. The service would be another major boost to tourism along the western seaboard, with the German demand growing for the unique and increasingly popular Wild Atlantic Way offering.
The vote will take place on Eurowings’ Facebook account facebook.com/eurowings/ (the link will also be available on www.shannonairport.ie) between 2pm and 3pm on Wednesday. The airports were announced as the three shortlisted out of ten selected earlier for the competition.
Shannon is the only Irish airport in Ireland to get to this stage in the competition and is now calling for the mobilisation of tourism interests along the Wild Atlantic Way, its loyal customer base and the wider public to help with the final push to secure the Cologne route for the region.
Speaking after the airport was announced as one of the three airports to make the final shortlist, Shannon Airport managing director Andrew Murphy urged the people to once more get behind Shannon’s bid to be the chosen route: “We were overwhelmed by the response and so grateful to the public for taking the time to vote us into the final. We need its support again on Wednesday to land the new route for Ireland.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the Irish public to positively impact on our country’s tourism industry. Given Shannon Airport’s role as the premier gateway for the Wild Atlantic Way and famous Irish tourist attractions like the Cliffs of Moher and Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, winning this service would be a major boost for tourism in the region.
“The German market for the unique Irish offering here on the Western half of the island has grown exponentially since the launch of the Wild Atlantic Way and this service would be guaranteed to bring in additional tourists to the region who would, no doubt, come back time and time again. It would put another exciting outbound offering on our schedule so it would definitely be a win-win”
People can log onto the Eurowings Facebook page now at https://www.facebook.com/eurowings/videos/10156177246161416/ and vote at 2pm.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.