Tourism organisations from across Ireland took part in a tourism trade mission to China last week with the goal of tapping into the lucrative Asian market.
The four day trade mission, organised by Tourism Ireland’s China office, took in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai and involved a series of B2B workshops, networking and media interviews for participating Irish companies, which included Stena Line, Irish Country Hotels, Dublin Tourism, Kildare Shopping Village, and Birr Castle.
Sinead Grace from Tourism Ireland said: “There were two B2B workshops during the trade mission, one in Shanghai and one in Beijing. They consisted of one-to-one, face-to-face meetings between the Irish Tourism companies who travelled to China and the Chinese travel agents/tour operators in those cities. They provided a valuable opportunity for Irish companies to promote and sell their product or service and to encourage the Chinese travel agents to feature that product or service in their holiday programmes for 2012 and beyond.”
Here in Ireland, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Brendan Howlin TD, pledged in a statement last week in relation to tourism and business to maintain the investment that was put into infrastructure. He said that although we are living in difficult economic times and we cannot afford all that we want to do, one of the priorities would be to maintain the 70 billion euro that was put into infrastructure over the last ten years. The completion of the new motorway network creates easier accessibility to the regions and will continue to boost tourism in areas that need it. Among the priorities over the medium term will be ensuring the adequate maintenance of the national road network in order to protect the value of previous investments, said the Minister.
Popular destinations for Chinese visitors would be The Giants Causeway, Powerscourt Gardens, Birr Castle and the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher, although they didn’t make it to the final seven, were recently shortlisted to 27 from 400 entries to qualify as a Wonder of Nature. Irish cities including Belfast, Dublin and Cork are also very popular with Chinese tourists.
Commenting on the long-term potential of new and developing markets such as China for tourism to Ireland, Susan Li from Tourism Ireland China said: “The majority of Ireland’s overseas visitors are from the core markets of Britain, mainland Europe and North America, and while this will continue it is important that we expand our focus beyond these markets and look to the long term opportunities presented by emerging tourism markets in Asia & China. The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) forecasts that the Asia-Pacific region will be the fastest-growing outbound region for travel, expanding annually by 6.5 per cent on average over the next 15 years. Trade missions such as this provide a good opportunity for our Irish partners to develop their business links and enhance their relationships with key decision makers, helping to grow their tourism business from China.”
During the four day trade mission, face-to-face meetings were conducted with more than 60 Chinese decision makers, including leading travel agents and tour operators. The trade mission was a useful platform for the participating tourism companies from Ireland to showcase their product to travel agents during their time in Shanghai and Beijing. These travel agents collectively produce more than 80 per cent of Ireland’s tourism business from China. The Irish companies were also interviewed by a number of influential Chinese travel writers. “These interviews,” explained Sinead Grace, “were conducted by influential travel writers based in Shanghai and Beijing who spoke with the various Irish tourism companies who travelled to China and highlighted Ireland through the media.”
