Tourism Ireland and Tourism Minister Paschal Donohoe have launched a €12 million campaign in a bid to boost late-season tourism to Ireland.
Tourists who arrive in the country in the September - December period contribute up to 30 per cent of Ireland’s annual overseas tourism business. The campaign aims to capitalise on this market, in what has been a record year for Irish tourism figures.
The campaign will highlight the many festivals and events taking place right around the island this autumn – from the Dublin Theatre Festival to the Bram Stoker Festival, Culture Night, the Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, Savour Kilkenny Food Festival, The Outing, Cork Jazz Festival and the Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival.
The campaign will target Ireland's major tourist markets such as the UK, North America, Mainland Europe, Australia as well as some emerging markets. The campaign will focus on the events above, city breaks, rural Ireland as well as a partnership with Aer Lingus and Ryanair highlighting good value fares to the country.
Spaeking at the launch, Minister Donohoe said: “I am delighted to launch Tourism Ireland’s autumn marketing campaign. CSO figures for the period to the end of July showed that we had increased the number of overseas visitors coming to Ireland by over +12% compared to 2014. In fact, the results represented the highest ever number of visitors to Ireland in that first seven-month period. The autumn campaign, which will roll out in all of our main target overseas markets, should ensure that the momentum is maintained and that 2015 will be a record year for Irish tourism."
The autumn campaign is set to roll out after a successful summer campaign which saw an increase of 12 per cent in visitor numbers to the country for the May - July period.
