(TAN): Tourism Ireland in the United States launched its marketing plans for 2020 on January 28 at an event in New York attended by leading tour operators, travel agents and journalists from the tri-State area.
Tourism Ireland aims to surpass the performance of 2019 and to grow revenue from North American visitors by +4% in 2020 i.e. EUR 1.96 billion (USD 2.16 billion approx.) generated by 2.13 million visitors (+4%). Tourism Ireland will prioritise North America once again in 2020, as a market which offers a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure.
Tourism Ireland’s TV ad – ‘Fill Your Heart With Ireland’ – is now running on major American TV networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX in Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco and Hartford. This is phase two of Tourism Ireland’s global campaign, featuring some of the less-visited attractions and locations (including Trim Castle, the Waterford Greenway, EPIC – the Irish Emigration Museum and Rathlin Island).
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Galway 2020 was showcased at the launch, reminding the influential travel professionals in attendance that the city is European Capital of Culture this year. Tourism Ireland will target its ‘culturally curious’ audience in North America, and elsewhere around the world, highlighting that the island of Ireland offers world-class festivals and cultural experiences, all year round.
Tourism Ireland’s focus is on driving business to the regions and ensuring the benefits of tourism growth are distributed right around the island of Ireland, on a year-round basis.
Speaking at the launch in New York, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “In 2019, we welcomed over 2 million North American visitors to the island of Ireland, delivering revenue of around EUR 1.89 billion for the economy. Looking to the year ahead, we are confident that our strategy will deliver further growth. We are placing a strong focus on spreading overseas tourism business more evenly around the entire island and encouraging more people to visit in the off-season. We look forward to welcoming more of our great friends from North America this year and in the years to come.”
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Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America and Australia, said: “We have a very clear focus for the year ahead and that is to deliver a +4% increase in visitor numbers and +4% increase in revenue from North America. We will achieve this by working in close collaboration with our Irish and American tourism partners and by rolling out an extensive programme of high impact campaigns and promotions which will target those consumers with greatest potential to travel to the island of Ireland.”
In 2019, Ireland welcomed over 2 million American and Canadian visitors to the island country, delivering revenue of approximately EUR 1.89 billion for the economy (+2% on 2018).
