€19 Million Campaign Injection For The Gathering

Tourism Ireland have launched a €19million promotional campaign in order to entice late-season travelers to Ireland from around the world during the last few months of the gathering.   The promotional campaign will focus on the numerous festivals and events that take place around Ireland during the autumn season.    Some of the events include the Dublin Festival Season, the Belfast Festival at Queens, Wexford Festival Opera, Westport Food Festival, Waterford Harvest Food Festival, Cork Jazz Festival and the Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival.   A special focus will be placed on highlighting the New Year’s Eve event in Dublin – NYE 2014 – which is the grand finale of The Gathering and which looks set to be even bigger than last year's event.   The campaign will be rolled out across Great Britain, the United States, Mainland Europe, Australia and emerging markets – will incorporate a major focus on city breaks as well as on attracting visitors to more rural areas over the coming months.   Leo Varadkar, Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, said that "it's been a great year for Irish tourism so far with a 6% increase in visitors. This €19 million campaign will help keep momentum going, and has been fine-tuned for key markets who are likely to visit.”   Tourism Ireland CEO Niall Gibbons believes that "the autumn campaign aims to take advantage of late booking trends in our target markets, as there is still plenty of business to play for."