The West being heavily promoted

THE West of Ireland is being heavily promoted in the Chicago area at the moment, according to Simon Gregory, director of markets with Tourism Ireland.
“We’re running advertising out there, we’ve got a big publicity campaign, we had about 50 media and trade at a lunch this week to promote and sell not just the service but the benefits of Shannon and the West Coast.”
He also said there are strong links between the Windy City and Ireland. “It’s hard to find anyone in Chicago who doesn’t have Irish links, particularly links to the West of Ireland. I was on the flight in and a number of people hadn’t been to Ireland in a number of years and they were coming because the service is back.”
Mr Gregory said people in the US see the advantages of Shannon. “Americans want to come to the West Coast because that’s where they think they’re going to see the real Ireland.”
He feels Ireland could do with broadening its range of air services to the US. “We’d love to see some west coast access back in, which we don’t have at all on the island of Ireland. We think that’s got potential. Some of the southern states are starting to look very promising for us but the west is probably the most important one and we’d like to see more access from Canada.”