(TAN): Within a week of being crowned one of the top ten most promising overseas destinations at the Golden Footprint Cultural Tourism Summit in China, Ireland has bagged another award — it has been named the “best destination in Europe” at the 17th annual Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards 2019.
Tourism Ireland accepted the award that Ireland had won for the sixth consecutive year.
Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America said they were delighted for winning the award sixth year in a row.
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“Travellers nowadays have tremendous choice, which makes it more important than ever for us to ensure the island of Ireland stands out from other destinations – so this award is really good news, coming at the end of another good year for Irish tourism from the US and as we prepare to kick off another extensive promotional drive in 2020, in this all-important market,” she added while accepting the award at New York.
Ireland received strong numbers from North America, both in terms of visitors and spending – by the end of 2019, nearly 2.05 million American and Canadian visitors will have travelled to Ireland, contributing revenue worth EUR 1.89 billion (USD 2.1 billion), Tourism Ireland said.
Tourism accounts for 4% of Ireland’s Gross National Product while employing around 325,000 people. Ireland welcomed nearly 11.2 million overseas visitors in 2018. Tourism Ireland’s three-year marketing strategy for 2020-22 aims to increase visitor numbers to 12 million by 2022. Overseas revenue for 2018 stood at nearly EURO 5.86 billion (USD 6.48 billion approximately) which the marketing body aims to raise to EUR 6.54 billion (USD 7.25 billion approximately) by 2022.
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Metcalfe acknowledged the roles travel trade partners across the United States and Ireland’s tourism partners played in promoting the island of Ireland as an ideal holiday destination.
“We look forward to building on this year’s success together, in 2020 and beyond,” she said.
