German blogger helps to put Galway on tourism map for his countrymen
Date Published: 05-May-2011
People in Galway were saying ‘Hi to Kai’ this week as popular German blogger Kai Müller visited Galway city and Oughterard as part of an innovative new campaign from Tourism Ireland.
‘Mission Ireland’ aims to boost Ireland’s visitor numbers from Germany, our third-largest tourism market. The campaign involves Kai Müller taking a month-long journey around Ireland, visiting the spots voted for by his online community of followers in Germany. Kai’s followers in Germany voted for him to visit Galway this week and he duly obliged, arriving on Sunday and staying for two nights, during which time he blogged about his experiences.
Kai is on a journey across the island of Ireland, creating a travel-blog about his experiences as he goes, by posting on a specially created website www.mission-ireland.de as well as on social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
Introducing ‘crowd-sourcing’ for the first time in a Tourism Ireland campaign, Kai’s next destination will be decided on by his followers who will vote for him to complete a variety of missions or challenges – which could be anything from taking a dip in the Forty Foot at Sandycove, to crossing the quivering Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge in Co Antrim, dining like a lord in Bunratty Castle or even swimming with Funghi in Dingle!
Germany is the world's largest outbound tourism market and is the third most important market for visitors to the island of Ireland, delivering approximately 379,000 visitors for the island of Ireland in 2010 and about €162 million in revenue for the economies North and South.
Tourism Ireland has planned an extensive advertising and PR campaign in Germany to coincide with the launch of Mission Ireland, including a radio promotion which will reach almost two million listeners, as well as online advertising and PR activity.
The main objectives are to raise awareness of the island of Ireland as a holiday destination among online and younger audiences (under 35s) in Germany and to increase engagement and interaction with Tourism Ireland fans and online communities.
Commenting on Mission Ireland, Barbara Wood from Tourism Ireland Germany said: “This campaign is the first of its kind for us and should prove to be a really effective way of engaging with online communities in Germany and bringing our message of fun, friendliness and spontaneity to life. The island of Ireland holds strong appeal for Germans, ranking at number five on Germans’ ‘wish-list’ of places to visit in 2011, and Tourism Ireland believes there is plenty of untapped potential in the market, particularly given that the German economy is performing well.”
Kai Müller is a well-known blogger and photographer in Germany. Based in Berlin, he has been writing his blog since 2006 and is something of a pioneer of blogging in Germany. Kai will complete the missions and travel around Ireland in a fun, mission-ireland.de branded car, which has been provided by Avis Ireland for the duration of his trip.