Tourism Ireland kicks off 2012 with the pull of a new global advertising campaign-‘Jump into Ireland’ to promote the country overseas during the next three years.
The campaign consists of advertising on television in Britain, US, Spain and Italy and online in 22 other markets in which Tourism Ireland has a presence to an estimated audience of 200 million.
The soundtrack for the TV ads is from the latest album ‘Fallen Empires’ by Co Tyrone band Snow Patrol.
Niall Gibbons from Tourism Ireland said “Interest in Ireland remains strong in all our markets. Overseas tourism to Ireland grew from all main markets and grew ahead of our competitors. We are targeting further growth in 2012 and in the years ahead and our goal is to welcome 9 million people to Ireland by 2015.”
The launch of the Campaign coincided with Dublin Airport’s new daily long haul service to Dubai operated by Emirates airline. An airport Emirates official said that bookings are already hectic and a return flight in early 2012 would cost in the region of 700 euro. Dublin Airport’s Declan Collier said “This new service is fruit of the hard work of many people in Dublin and Dubai.”
Tourism Ireland’s Sinead Grace said “This new service greatly enhances our connectivity from vital new emerging markets like Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa as well as the middle East. We have worked closely through co-operative marketing programmes with Emirates and Dublin Airport to help secure and drive demand for the new route and this activity will continue in the months ahead.”
Other major events happening this year to boost tourism are the Volvo Ocean Race which started on October 29th at Alicante Spain. From there the route takes the race to Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, Miami and across the Atlantic to Lisbon and will culminate in three laps around Ireland and finish at Galway. The closing ceremony will be held in Galway followed by a ten day festival celebrating the event.
Another event that is destined to attract thousands of tourists is the American college football game between teams Navy and Notre Dame which will be held in the Aviva Stadium later this year. The Notre Dame-Navy rivalry is the longest continuous rivalry in college football with the two schools having met every year since 1927 “To see this stadium is to believe it” said Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk. “Although modest in capacity, few stadiums anywhere have attended to the detail, aesthetics and fan comfort found at Aviva. I guarantee those that travel to Ireland and attend this event will enjoy an experience that will be awesome and a memory not to be forgotten.”
Tourism Ireland has put a promotional campaign in place to ensure as many as possible travel here for the game. A specially prolonged ad highlighting the many things to do and see around Ireland is running now on NBC television during national football league games in New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The events of last year including the visits of Queen Elizabeth and President Obama, Rory McElroy’s US Open win and the MTV Music Awards hosted in Belfast to 632 million homes in 150 countries, provided fantastic opportunities for Tourism Ireland to promote Ireland on the international stage, and unsuspecting commuters passing through Sydney’s Central Station on St Patrick’s day last were surprised when troupes of Irish dancers brought the station to a standstill. The performance was posted on YouTube where it has been viewed by two million people to date.
In the second half of this year Tourism Ireland intend to promote ‘The Gathering’ in 2013 to the 70 million people across the world who are linked to Ireland through relatives and friends.
