Representatives of Mayo County Council and Castlebar Municipal District, who are in New York for the St Patrick’s Day period, met with senior executives from Tourism Ireland. They were briefed on Tourism Ireland’s extensive promotional programme in the United States for 2018, which is in full swing right now.
“We were delighted to meet with the representatives from Mayo and to have the opportunity to brief them about the extensive promotional programme we are undertaking in the United States this year,” said Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America. “Last year, we welcomed a record 1.83 million North American visitors to the island of Ireland. In 2018, we are confident that our strategy – combined with more airline seats than ever before from the US, as well as the strength and competitiveness of the vacation experience right around the island of Ireland – will deliver further growth. Our aim is to deliver a 5% increase in visitor numbers and 7% increase in revenue from North America in 2018.
“St Patrick’s Day traditionally marks the real start of the tourism season for us; our aim is to bring a smile to the faces of people everywhere and to convey the message that Ireland offers the warmest of welcomes and great fun, as well as wonderful scenery and heritage. We are using every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland’s heightened profile this week; the saturation coverage about Ireland at this time of year – across the airwaves, in newspapers and digital media – is an invaluable boost for our overall tourism marketing drive in 2018.”
Tourism Ireland recently launched a new strategy to continue to grow tourism from the United States, setting out ambitious targets which will see Ireland welcome 2 million American visitors per year by 2021, representing growth of 23%, and will see revenue generated by American holidaymakers increase by 33% to €1.37 billion per year.
