Tourism chiefs come to Galway
The Twelve Hotel in Barna was the venue for the May board meeting of Tourism Ireland.
And while here, board members took the opportunity to meet with local tourism operators prior to the meeting, to discuss the tourism season and the extensive promotional programme which Tourism Ireland is undertaking to highlight Galway, the West of Ireland and the island of Ireland around the world this year.
Speaking after the board meeting, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “We were delighted to be in Galway for this month’s board meeting and to have the chance to meet with representatives of the tourism industry from the West of Ireland and to hear directly how their business is doing.
“It also afforded us the opportunity to discuss the extensive promotional programme which Tourism Ireland is undertaking around the world this year, to build on the success of 2015 and continue to grow overseas visitor numbers to the West of Ireland.
“Priority markets are Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France, but our promotions are also continuing in other key markets across the world – including Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, as well as new and emerging markets like China and India.”
Galway city and county, its events, heritage and visitor attractions, as well as many other aspects of this part of Ireland, feature prominently in Tourism Ireland’s promotions around the world. Tourism Ireland profiles Galway extensively on its global suite of websites, Ireland.com, which which attracted about 16.5 million unique visitors in 2015.
Galway is also highlighted through Tourism Ireland’s social media platforms – to its 3.4+ million active Facebook fans and 324,000+ followers on Twitter.
In 2015, Tourism Ireland helped generate about €55.6 million worth of positive publicity for Galway in key markets around the world, through press releases, press visits, e-newsletters and various media events.
Tourism Ireland’s activity also includes co-operative promotions to highlight ease of access to Ireland West Airport Knock e.g. with Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Flybe to promote their services to IWAK.