Galway to the fore in new international tourism blitz

THE West of Ireland is to feature prominently in next year’s campaign to reverse the dramatic 12% fall in overseas tourists, with tourism chiefs planning to achieve growth of 3% by focusing on the promotion of value breaks in the British and German markets.

Galway and its festivals as well as Connemara are being highlighted in a television campaign to be broadcast across Great Britain next month, part of a €12.8m investment in the market which suffered a devastating 15% drop last year. Tourism Ireland is the first tourist board in Britain to launch a TV campaign focusing on good value offers.

At the launch of the 2010 global tourism drive this week in the Ardilaun Hotel, head of Tourism Ireland Niall Gibbons said the agency would have to “shake the branches and get out on the road like never before” to buck the forecasts of other overseas agencies which are predicting further falls in tourist numbers of 2%.

“We will focus on getting short-term wins. Value will be the key message for the hugely competitive markets in which we operate and we’ll be highlighting the uniqueness of a holiday in Galway, the west and around the island of Ireland – the diversity of our culture and heritage and the friendliness of our people – to secure ‘stand out’ and differentiate ourselves in a very crowded marketplace,” he said.He warned that their target of 3% growth – bringing in a total of 7.85m visitors – would be particularly difficult to achieve with the 12% decline in air access by carriers to the west this summer.

Around 50 tourism operators in the region who attended the launch were encouraged to join some of the 3,500 overseas marketing events planned for next year to promote themselves.

They were also advised to use the Discover Ireland website regularly to publicise up-to-date special offers, which could then be used by the agency in their overseas marketing.

Mr Gibbons told the Connacht Tribune that it was clear from the feedback from overseas trade operators that there was still a perception that dining out and drinking in Ireland made the country an expensive holiday option. While there were good deals for accommodation, it was essential that hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafes carefully packaged what they offered to ensure excellent value. This could involve more early bird offers or a free drink with lunch.

Ireland was currently ranked fifth out of 50 on the list of most-desired destinations in the UK, ahead of the US and New Zealand. But it was now up to all the stakeholders to shoot the island to the top of that list, he said.

That aim would be kick-started with 10 million advertising inserts going into newspapers around Britain in the first half of next year highlighting value breaks. This would be in conjunction with three 60-second TV ads – one of them featuring the Galway Arts Festival, the Galway Oyster Festival, Roundstone and the beaches of Connemara. There would also be a much bigger marketing drive around St Patrick’s Day to raise awareness of the brand.

For more, read page 8 of this week's Galway City Tribune