Tourism drive in New Zealand and Oz

Dromoland Castle and the Cliffs of Moher are among 12 Irish businesses touring New Zealand and Australia this week.

During the eight-day sales blitz, they will meet hundreds of influential travel agents, tour operators and journalists, during specially tailored business-to-business workshop sessions and networking events – telling them all about what the island of Ireland has to offer holidaymakers.

Tourism Ireland’s final overseas trade mission of 2014 takes in the cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Jim Paul, Tourism Ireland’s head of Australia and developing markets, said: “Australia and New Zealand are important markets for tourism to the island of Ireland, delivering a record 206,000 visitors last year, representing growth of 16% over 2012. Visitors from these markets are important, as they tend to stay longer than other holidaymakers, typically six to eight nights, they travel right around the island and many of them come here in the off-season.

According to the latest CSO figures, visitor numbers from Australia and New Zealand have increased by 4% for January to September this year, compared with the same nine-month period in 2013.
The delegation of Irish tourism companies including John Hehir, Dromoland Castle (right) and Katherine Webster, Cliffs of Moher (second right); pictured in Brisbane with Jim Paul (back, fifth left) and Diane Butler (front, right), both Tourism Ireland.