Tourism Ireland

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About Tourism Ireland

Tourism Ireland is the agency responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas as a holiday destination.

Tourism Ireland was established under the framework of the Belfast Agreement of Good Friday, April 1998, to increase tourism to the island of Ireland as a whole.

Today, the organisation employs 150 people in key source markets - Great Britain, USA and Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Australia - as well as in Ireland, in Dublin and Coleraine - to deliver targeted marketing programmes and work in close cooperation with travel trade, on-line operators, media, carriers and Irish industry partners.

For more information about Tourism Ireland, please visit our corporate site.

Marketing Activity in the US
Fall 2009

New York News	A 'Flavor of Ireland' comes to the West Coast
Francis Bacon - A Terrible Beauty, launches in New York	Tourism Ireland wins radio award
Trade and Promotions	Advertising
Publicity

New York News

The fragile global economy continues to affect most business sectors and international tourism is one of the worst affected. Tourism to the island of Ireland is also going through a tremendously challenging time; in fact, it would be difficult to overstate the pressure that some of our trade partners are feeling this Fall and Winter.

In these circumstances, the need for Tourism Ireland and our key partners to redouble efforts to drive vacationers to the island of Ireland has never been greater. We need to remind ourselves that we have a great product and a great brand and a very large pool of potential customers and that our immediate task is to persuade more of them to go now. We are very satisfied with our broad and robust marketing campaign in North America this fall which we feel generated great 'immediate' interest in traveling and which we hope also ignited a fire that will drive numbers in the early part of 2010. As we finalize our plans for next year we are hugely encouraged by the resilience, energy and verve shown by our partners in the Irish tourism industry and we look forward to working with all of our colleagues in encouraging US consumers to "Go Where Ireland Takes You."

Joe Byrne, EVP United States and Canada

A 'Flavor of Ireland' comes to the West Coast

TI's innovative trade and media platform 'A Flavor of Ireland' descended upon California this Fall. Following on from hugely successful visits to Boston and Philadelphia in the spring, the events gave the Island of Ireland a wonderful profile in the two key DMA's of Los Angeles and San Francisco this October.

These events see our trade partners from Ireland and the US interface directly with US retail agents who are invited to "Go where Ireland takes you". A themed presentation is delivered to the agents who enjoy a journey through the island of unique Character and Characters. The themes include Places & Characters, Myths & Gourmet, Golf & Relaxation and From Farmhouse to Manor House.

On this occasion the trade was represented by CIE Tours, Doonbeg Golf Club, Lynott Tours, Sceptre Tours, Ireland's Shannon Region, Golf VIP Ireland/Druids Glen Golf Resort, Hanly Castle Hotels, Lough Erne Golf Resort, Ancestry Ireland and the Ulster Historical Foundation.

As this is happening, a media reception is held in an adjoining room for key media contacts in the DMA. Here the journalists are briefed on all the latest happenings in Ireland, story ideas, and the press trip opportunities that are available to them. After the presentations, trade and media are invited to attend a reception/networking event and continue the experiential evening through a gastro tour of Ireland featuring regionally themed food stations, the most popular being the display of freshly baked wheaten bread baked on site by Mary and Eamon Gleeson from Roscommon.

Both events were outstandingly successful with over 200 high end consortia agents in attendance and over 100 media from outlets such as the San Francisco Chronicle and The LA Times.

Francis Bacon - A Terrible Beauty, launches in New York

Tourism Ireland was delighted to partner with Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane this Fall to launch the latest spectacular ode to renowned Irish artist Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon, A Terrible Beauty, celebrates the centenary of Bacon's birth at 63, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin.

Tourism Ireland hosted a media reception at the Irish American historical society which gave Hugh Lane curator Barbara Dawson the opportunity to present to key US arts media contacts and dignitaries. The exhibition is running at the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane until March 7, 2010 and is to be one of the major events on Europe's cultural calendar.

click here to see video>>

Tourism Ireland wins radio award

Campaign Magazine recently announced the winners of their prestigious 'Big Awards' and Tourism Ireland North America took home the spoils in the Radio - Travel and Leisure Category ( impressive given it encompasses not only travel but also sports, toys, DIY and other sectors).

The award was for Tourism Ireland's IWWAY Radio ads which ran in Boston and New York and coincided with the Newspaper and online IWWAY messaging in those markets.

"The Big Awards have become the kite-mark for creative excellence across all media and all product categories, from TV to DM, radio to press, posters to digital" - and therefore it was a great honor for TI to receive this award.

Vice President, Marketing US, Alison Metcalfe, said this honor gives recognition to the work being done by TI in bringing Ireland's Wonderful West to US consumers in key gateways serving Shannon. "Tourism Ireland has always prided itself on engaging with consumers in a creative and innovative fashion. This award highlights the work we are doing in this regard and re-emphasizes the importance of adopting a well targeted and integrated approach to delivering brand consistent advertising"

Listen to winning ad >>

Fall Activities

Trade and Promotions

60 Consortia travel agents (Ensemble, Virtuoso and Signature) traveled to Ireland this Fall to participate in two week long regional familiarization visits culminating in a B2B workshop with Irish/U.S. suppliers on Sept 28th.

80 Irish suppliers joined TI for the full day workshop providing a key platform for exposure of Irish product to top producing U.S. agents.

The two Itineraries saw agents visit some of the islands top attractions.

Itinerary A - (Dublin /Northern Ireland/ East Coast)
• Dublin Sightseeing Tour, Dublin Castle, National History Museum, National Library • The Old Jameson Distillery, Dublin • National Trust Properties', Crom Estate & Castle Coole, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh • The Walled City of Londonderry • The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim • Belfast City Tour, The Titanic Quarter • Mount Stewart House & Gardens, Co. Down • St. Patrick Centre & Down County Museum • Powerscourt House Co. Wicklow.

Itinerary B - (South West/ South East/Dublin)
• Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre, Co. Clare • Bunratty Folk Park and Medieval Banquet, Co Clare • Ring of Kerry • Dingle Peninsula • Lakes of Killarney • Muckross House & Gardens • Cork City Tour • Queenstown Story, Cobh Co. Cork • Mitchelstown Caves, Co Tipperary • Rock of Cashel, Co. Tipperary • Dublin Sightseeing Tour, Dublin Castle, National History Museum, National Library.

AARP Show

TI and our trade partners brought the Ireland message to Las Vegas in late October at one of the most important trade shows on the US calendar. The American Association of Retired People (AARP) show is a lifestyle & travel event which had an attendance of over 25,000. AARP has over 39 million members nationwide and is the leading membership organization for people age 50 and over in the United States.

Membership are key demographic for Tourism Ireland's target market of baby-boomer and culture seekers. The event presented a fabulous opportunity for our US, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland partners to access this market.

Motivation Show

Motivation Show is the largest exhibition of its kind in the US targeting incentive house buyers & meeting planners. Tourism Ireland had a strong presence at the event where we were joined by trade partners from Adare Manor, Killarney Hotels, Paula Ward's Ireland/Kerry Convention Bureau, Moloney & Kelly, The Westin, Ritz Carlton, The Shelbourne, Ovation, Dromoland Castle, Hastings Hotels, Lough Erne Golf Resort.

Group Travel Seminars

Tourism Ireland also participated this Fall in US Group Producers Workshops. This is a series of Educational Workshops for Group Producing retail travel agents. The objective of this promotion is to provide an opportunity for tourism suppliers from the island of Ireland, together with related US operators, to present their group product offerings directly to a select number of US Travel Trade. The events took place in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and LA.

Advertizing

TI was delighted with it's fall advertising campaign which captured the essence of the brand and which we are confident drove many consumers to "Go where Ireland takes you". It was a six week integrated campaign covering Core and IWWAY objectives with a total offline reach of 106 million over four weeks and an online reach of 33.7 million IMPS.

Magazine Category - Tourism Ireland took advantage of our added value in-book to push a strong value campaign for the fall. This included additional space in Budget Travel, Harpers Magazine and Sherman Travel which carried a brand and partner offer message. Also for our fall buy in Visit Europe and Budget Travel we carried partner offers in a mirror advert from our newspaper campaign. Conde Nast Traveler and Gourmet carried our brand message including advertorial on Ashford Castle and the West of Ireland. Additional opportunities included inserting an ad with Budget Travel and offering 'castle themed' vacations to coincide with the editorial headline of Irelands Castles.

Newspaper Category - Our Newspaper presence ran for over 6 weeks with a combination of Core, IWWAY and Carrier tactical push.

CORE - The core campaign ran in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia with a new creative to achieve stand out for Ireland in a cluttered environment. These creatives featured offers from our partners and a push for shoulder-season travel. The campaign commenced in mid-August and completed in mid-September

IWWAY - This campaign mirrored the core campaign and ran in synergy in the markets of New York and Boston. The offers were driving and reinforcing the great value for travel to Ireland and highlighting Ireland's Wonderful West. The campaign ran from mid-August to early September.

Television

TI delivered a unique opportunity to co-sponsor the US Open Tennis in the specific DMAs of Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Tourism Ireland TV adverts aired with a new call to action highlighting great value vacation offers as it's end screen. This partnership also included sponsored player profiles which gave an opportunity to reinforce great value vacation offers. Negotiated added value opportunities included airing of our advert during the men's final.

Radio

Core Radio - new .30sec spots were developed to drive frequency and impact of our brand and presence in radio. The radio aired to complement the newspaper and online in market. Radio spots aired in Chicago, Boston and New York from mid-August to mid-September. Click on Link below to listen to ad.

Listen to the Radio Campaign >>

Online Advertising

Fall online activity included extensive destination & IWWAY brand & tactical display advertising & on-site features, advertorials, eDM activity to subscriber base on key travel planning, booking, lifestyle & news sites. TI also engaged in a viral photo campaign on social channels, partnership with leading travel guide Fodor's for UGC photo competition and CBS US Open for week online sponsorship. The campaigns leveraged new custom assets, branded go webisodes video assets, highlighted the value message through copy and travel offers from top and intermediate partners from the US partnership program. It was demo-, behaviorally-, competitive-set and keyword targeted. This was overlaid with a brand and tactical keyword driven PCC campaign on google and yahoo. The campaign ran over 10 weeks.

The IWWAY campaign was extended into November aiming to target those still open to travel message through display & text links on travel interest sites and eDM activity to their subscriber bases.

Viral Campaign

TI launched it's brand activating viral campaign which spread the Ireland message through social networks in a fun and engaging way. Activity around the campaign comprised of running behavior & demo targeted display advertising across social networking and travel sites - 8.5 MM impressions, delivering campaign ezine to our warm database, highlighting campaign message on di.com homepage, leveraging existing TI account on facebook and utilizing Facebook's new platform of PPC advertising against our core demographic profiles in key DMAs.

Ireland's West Coast promotion on Travelzoo was in direct support of the Shannon route and the west coast area. Aer Lingus and Continental provided specific sale fares to Shannon and top and intermediate partners from the partnership supplied air-inclusive and land-only packages, as well as visitor attractions discount booklet and accommodation deals. The email directing to the advertorial was sent to 11 million US consumers. Ireland was the Destination Feature on the homepage for the following week and Ireland offers and links rotated through various sections on the site over the following 4 week period. The main messages included ease of access from US, affordable vacations, abundance of things to see and do including golf, sightseeing, festivals and events.

Direct Marketing

The regional e-direct marketing campaign communicated the desirability of Ireland as a fall & winter vacation destination, highlighting the regions of Ireland, leveraging partner offers to generate bookings & driving opt-ins to receive future messages from TI. Circulation was 645k targeted contacts & on-site sponsorship with Travel&Leisure.com as well as to 220k T&L subscribers where our core target is active.

Publicity

The Scots Irish at Stone Mountain

TI was delighted to partner with our colleagues from Northern Ireland to arrange an increased presence at the Stone Mountain Highland Games this October. There was the traditional information tent with tables for display of materials, pop ups from the Ulster Historical Foundation on family names and Genealogy, and Tourism Ireland pop ups featuring Northern Ireland. And new for 2009 there was a seminar tent which featured 9 presentations each day. The seminars included musical recitals, presentations by 3 authors on Scots Irish history, a genealogy presentation, a presentation by the Ulster Scots Society and cooking demonstrations by a Scots Irish chef and food tastings.

As in previous years, there was keen interest in Ireland. The new Scots Irish Trail "itinerary" flyer was launched at the Games and distributed to consumers and also to each of the Scottish Clans to promote group visits to NI.

Flyers promoting the seminars were distributed to consumers by TI staff and also inserted into the official program. The seminars were also promoted by posters around the grounds and also at the Hilton Hotel and an ad was placed in the local newspaper.

TV coverage - As part of the campaign to advance the development of the Scots Irish Trail in NI, Out of Ireland, the TV program, attended the event. Interviews were conducted with the attendees from NI.

Out Of Ireland is The program is broadcast weekly via the PBS national satellite and is carried by over 31 stations across the country including New York,Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Audience reach is 6.3 million Irish American Homes.

The TI promotion at the Games and the color of the games were filmed and featured in the Out Of Ireland program on Sunday Oct 25. The programs on the locations featured in the Scots Irish Trail and the characters of NI around the locations will be featured in 6 programs on Out Of Ireland during December and the early part of 2010. In addition the footage will be edited into a promotional video to be used in the promotion of tourism to the Scots Irish in the US.

click here to see video>>

Events and Sponsorship

Tourism Ireland sponsored a number of high profile events in our key DMA's during the fall period including Celtic Thunder's US Tour, The Irish Theatre Festival of New York and Orla Fallon's US dates. The Arts is a one area which makes Ireland unique and TI uses this tremendous facet of Irish life to bring the vacation message to media and consumers.

One of our most exciting projects this Fall was to partner with the superb Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland on their US Tour. As an organization that represents the island of Ireland, it was our great pleasure to welcome the CBOI which brings young people together from all backgrounds and communities, and from different sides of the border, through the powerful medium of music.

Media Visits

The US media assistance program again had an extremely busy fall period with journalist's visits to Ireland including The Travel Channel, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting service of America. Many of these visits were based around key events on the Tourism calendar such as The Wexford Opera festival, the Cork Jazz festival and the Galway Oyster Festival. TI also supported Failte Ireland providing US representation for FI themed group trips including - Ireland - Land of the Horse, The cycling tour of Ireland, Golf South West, Food and Spa extravaganza etc.

Click here to see "Travel video post card - Ring Of Kerry"

Aer Lingus/Jet Blue Trip

Tourism Ireland was thrilled to join with our partners at Aer Lingus and Jet Blue to host a fantastic group press trip to Ireland this fall.

This was a press trip to celebrate Ireland's fantastic culture and heritage, the many wonderful things to see and do and also to highlight the extensive air links that now exist between Ireland and the United States as a result of the Aer Lingus/Jet Blue partnership.

Participants included - The NJ Record, Richmond Times and the NY Post who videoed their experiences.

click here to see NY Post video >>

The trip visited Dublin, Galway and Limerick, staying at some of the finest castles and hotels that Ireland has to offer. We also visited many of the islands top attractions including The Dublin City Gallery, Newgrange and Strokestown House.

2009 Activity

Marketing Through the Challenges	Brand 2009
Advertising	Trade and Promotions
Publicity	Access
Meet the Team...	Photo Gallery

Marketing Through the Challenges

"There is no doubt that 2009 is a challenging year for the tourism industry in Ireland and for our trade partners here in the US, but Tourism Ireland is convinced that we have the correct strategic approach and operational plan to reach our twin objectives for this year.

Armed with an energy and a true commitment to the island of Ireland, we are confident that our message and the manner in which it is delivered, will allow us meet our two key objectives of maximizing travel to the island of Ireland in 2009 and of positioning Ireland for the economic upturn, which we all hope is around the corner."

Joe Byrne, Executive Vice President, Tourism Ireland North America

Brand 2009

The exciting and spontaneous nature of a trip to Ireland is what our new brand is all about. To make 'em dream. To reaffirm the pledge that if the consumer chooses Ireland, they can expect to have the experience of a lifetime.

The feedback on the 'Go where Ireland takes you' theme has been phenomenal and along with the many great value offers to Ireland this year, it provides Tourism Ireland with a wonderful platform to continue marketing through the challenges of an uncertain marketplace.

Advertising

TI New York brings the brand to life with a fabulous new advertising, direct marketing and edm campaign. The creative is simply stunning and it allows us to bring an Ireland vacation experience to life, while always keeping the market, the message and the mix under constant review.

The new 'Go Where Ireland takes you' television campaign has already featured during high profile shows such as, The Late Show with David Letterman, Larry King Live and the "Today" Show.

The Destination Print campaign will feature in a mix of Travel, Epicurean, Culture and Golf publications such as, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler and Travel & Leisure Golf.


View live	View live

Tourism Ireland's online campaign will run on a mix of travel, news and lifestyle sites such as Sherman's Travel, New York Times and Golf Channel and if you still haven't got the message our radio campaign begins shortly and will bring the island of Ireland to listeners nationwide.

DRTV

Campaign running on ten national cable channels: Discovery, Science, CNN, Golf, History, HGTV, Travel, Fox News, TNT and BBC America.
Campaign based on 2 x two-week flights beginning February 23rd and March 15th.
Network mix based on defined programming in line with Tourism Ireland target market.
Where possible the cable schedule has been combined with billboards, online banners and newsletters to extend the reach of the campaign.
Day time parts for the buy are mainly (70% of spend) Prime Time (8pm-11pm) Spots are brand only with call to action to discoverireland.com

NETWORK TELEVISION

In addition to the significant cable television campaign Tourism Ireland has purchased advertising in top-rated network programming.

CBS - Late Show with David Letterman GWITY Rocks on Late Night Television!! - in a unprecedented programming arrangement U2 performed on Letterman all five nights of the week beginning March 2. Tourism Ireland purchased advertising during the show in six key DMAs (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco & Boston).
NBC Today Show - TI's .30 second spots will run in the top rated Today Show on March 13, 16, 17 and 18, coinciding with the live broadcasts from Dublin.
NBC (New York) - St. Patrick's Day Parade Broadcast. Tourism Ireland is once again a top sponsor of the broadcast of the parade on March 17th. The advertising purchase includes running of spots, billboards, tune- ins, in program exposure and a number of PR initiatives

See the TV Campaign Commercials >>

RADIO

JWT has developed a series of GWITY radio spots -.30 second ads (3 creatives) ensuring frequency and variance of the message to our target. There are both GWITY and IWWAY (.60 second) campaigns for radio. These will kick-off on March 15th and run over 4 weeks in a selection of gateways - Core Campaign will run in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. IWWAY will run in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. IWWAY will run for 2 weeks, while Core will run for 3 weeks.

Listen to the Radio Campaign >>

DESTINATION PRINT

The magazine campaign is in place for the full year. Creatives in use are as follows: Shannon to Dublin; Westport to Derry, Belfast to Giant's Causeway.; These will shortly be joined by Kenmare to Wexford and Galway to Belfast which will complete the suite of print ads.
Categories on the plan include Travel, Epicurean, Culture & Thought Leader and Golf. Titles include: Conde Nast Traveller, National Geographic Traveller, Budget Travel, New Yorker, Harpers, Gourmet and Travel & Leisure Golf.
Excellent added-value initiatives (on and off-line) were negotiated - the combined value of these exceeds the actual value of the print buy. Other added values include subscriber database, inclusion in online ezines and online broadcasting. All of these opportunities will be used to enhance the brand exposure. Total value in excess of $1M
Distribution of Golf Partnership Booklet (200k) in April issue of Travel & Leisure Golf Magazine.

TACTICAL PRINT

Newspaper insertions are quarter page vertical.

February 16: Partnership booklet distributed in Travel Weekly (40,000) TI ad in publication weeks pre and post book drop.
March 8: Ireland...More for Less tactical insertions in Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution
March 16: Partnership Book Drop in New York Times, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle (100,000 each gateway).
March 22: "Ireland's Wonderful West Awaits You" tactical insertions in Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
March 29: Ireland...More for Less tactical insertions in Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times and Boston Globe
April 05: Ireland...More for Less (full page) tactical insertion plus advertorial in Visit Europe Magazine distributed in New York Times, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle

DIRECT MARKETING

All Direct Mail campaigns have both on and offline components.

Scots-Irish Direct Mail to 500,000, this DM will coincide with Scots Irish Advertising Campaign in Southern States: March 16
IWWAY Direct Mail to 560,000 featuring offers from Top Partners from the partnership program and promoting catchment area - March 23rd to coincide with IWWAY advertising, will target Irish Diaspora also.
Direct Mail (core campaign) - will reach subscribers from magazines in which our advertising appears and Irish names as part of our efforts to dial up the messaging to the Diaspora in the current challenging times - all intermediate partners will feature.

ONLINE ACTIVITY

Spring campaign launched and will run until mid-May.
Sites include a mix of travel, news, lifestyle and golf - LuxuryLink, Shermans Travel, NY Times, Wall Street Journal BBC America, Hotwire, Yahoo Portal, Travel Channel, TravelZoo, AOL, Ad.com, Gourmet, Conde Nast, Harpers, New Yorker and National Geographic.
Buy includes newsletters, home page takeovers, sponsorship of travel deal and news headlines sections and EDM to subscriber bases.
Tactical activity includes TravelZoo EDM/Advertorial, Fodor's & Hotwire Travel Deals, Sherman's Travel EDM & NY Times EDM
Currently there are eight executions in the core campaign
Creative units include both standard and rich media and also in-banner video units (television ads) - Units click through to custom landing page with focus on data capture and partner messaging.
Yahoo Sponsorship - negotiated globally - campaign will have co-branded advertising on Yahoo portal, Ireland microsite featuring Ireland content and the newly developed webisodes.
Viral Campaign incorporating brand and partner messaging.
Ongoing series of EDM to Tourism Ireland database featuring partner offers as appropriate.
Increased value messaging & program of 'tactical' web enhancements completed to make website worker harder at conversion - dialing up tactical message on homepage and development of www.discoverireland.com/IrelandMoreForLess & www.discoverireland.com/irelandgolfmoreforless
IWWAY Online: This campaign will run simultaneously with the core Ireland... More for Less campaign. It will feature on AOL, Ad.com, and Sherman's Travel and will be, demo and contextually targeted through these ad networks to ensure efficient delivery to our best prospects.

Trade and Promotions

Our partnership program provides the backbone of our trade and promotions department. Armed with some fantastic offers, our trade partners join us on the road at carefully targeted events which deliver great exposure to key US operators and to hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide.

If it is "A Flavor of Ireland" that you seek, then you would most certainly find it in Tourism Ireland's new trade platform. "A Flavor of Ireland" is an experiential event designed to target high end consortia agent bases in key DMAs and our first events in Boston and Philadelphia were a huge success with our trade partners (15 from Ireland).

Along with other events, such as The Philadelphia Flower Show and the Boston Globe Travel Show, it has been an extremely busy schedule but all of these occasions are hugely effective vehicles for delivering the Ireland message.

A Flavor of Ireland

Participants attend thematic trade presentations in breakout rooms e.g. Irelands Myths and Legends, Gourmet Golf and Relaxation, From Farmhouse to Manor House.

Here they learn about Ireland's product, destination and cultural offerings through audio visual presentations introduced by Irish emcees and "characters" including Fionn McCumhaill and Grainne O'Malley, the pirate queen who related trade products and offerings to breakout theme.

Formal presentations followed by short Q and A. Post business presentations, trade are invited to attend reception/networking event and continue experiential evening through a gastro tour of Ireland featuring regionally themed food stations. The shows have been tied in with other consumer events and provide a great value cluster for traveling trade.

The PGA Merchandise Show - Orlando, Florida

As always, PGA show in Orlando provided a great opportunity to bring the Ireland message to key Golf consumers. We were joined by an enthusiastic selection of trade from Ireland who brought the Golf product to life.

North & West Coast Links Golf, The Lodge at Doonbeg, SWING, SW Marketing & Pr Consultants, Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links, NAGTOA, Jerry Quinlan's Celtic Golf , Slieve Donard Resort & Spa and the Lough Erne Golf Resort.

Boston Globe Travel Show

The TI stand at the Boston Travel Show had 16 partners. The show welcomed more than 17,000 consumers and 1,600 trade professionals, for a 3-day attendance total of 18,724.

The TI partners were - Specialized Travel, CIE Tours, Celtic Tours, Sceptre Tours, Experience Connemara, Irish Country Hotels/Manor House Hotels, Ireland's Shannon Region, Heritage Island, Ireland's West Coast, Irish Farmhouses, Irish Cycling Safaris, The Lodge at Doonbeg Golf Resort, Trident Hotel Kinsale, Irish Hotels Federation, Dublin Tourism and Causeway Coast & Glens.

Philadelphia Flower Show

The best way to experience Ireland's stunning gardens is to come and see them. The next best thing is to join us at the Philadelphia Flower Show where you will get a flavor of our stunning island and the hauntingly beautiful mix of gardens to be found there.

2009 saw Tourism Ireland joined at the Philadelphia Flower Show by three wonderful ambassadors for Irish Gardening. The delightful Gary Graham from the Bloom Festival, designer and broadcaster John Cushnie and, Bartle D'Arcy, Chairman of Houses, Castles and Gardens of Ireland.

The Irish Garden was designed by John Romano and we had great support from attending partners - CIE Tours, Lynott Tours, Sceptre Tours, Irish Hotels Federation, Town and Country Homes Association, Dublin Tourism, Irish Farmhouse Holidays, Houses, Castles and Gardens of Ireland, Ireland's Blue Book, Irelands Shannon Region, Specialized Travel Services and Destination Killarney.

Publicity

Publicity for the island of Ireland doesn't come any bigger than the highest rating morning show on network TV. As part of our 'Journalist Assistance Program', TI is bringing the NBC "Today" Show to Ireland for St Patrick's week. "Today" will broadcast live from Dublin and Wicklow on March 16 and 17 delivering the best of the festival to an enormous US audience.

Allied to this, an extremely busy events and sponsorship schedule, including the Boston Globe Travel Show, The Philadelphia Flower Show and the PGA show in Orlando, it has been a most fertile period for TI publicity in New York.

Ireland remains one of the most written about destinations here in the US and with the addition of our mediaroom website www.discoverireland/mediaroom, journalists now have a superb centralized resource to keep up to date with what is new across the island.

Journalist Assistance Program The journalist assistance program is busy, as always, guiding the cream of American writers and broadcasters to Ireland this year. The spring period has seen the TI program work with writers from Associated Press, USA Today, New York Daily News, Mens Journal, Denver Post, Yahoo News, Austin Monthly, Modern Bride, Continental Magazine. The highlight of the year came with the announcement that Tourism Ireland New York is bringing the NBC "Today" Show to Ireland for St Patrick's Day.
NBC "Today" Show to Discover Ireland on St Patrick's Day The biggest morning news show on nationwide TV will broadcast live from Dublin and Wicklow on March 16 and 17, bringing you all of the color and excitement of what is a truly special time on the island of Ireland. NBC will also travel around the island giving their viewers a real flavor of the many wonderful things to see and do.
NBC's Access Hollywood Joining the Today Show in Ireland will be NBC entertainment show "Access Hollywood"

Mr Food Mr Food will travel to the West of Ireland to profile it's many culinary delights. Five individual food segments will be featured on major network affiliates nationwide such as CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox in June 2009.

NBC Houston KPRC NBC Houston KPRC will travel around the island of Ireland in late March to film a 30 minute travel log program and several news features to be broadcast during the Houston Irish Fest in April. Minister for Tourism in the republic of Ireland, Martin Cullen TD, will appear in the program.

NBC New York NBC New York will broadcast live from the St Patrick's Day parade in the city sponsored by Tourism Ireland. They will interview key TI personnel and dignitaries from Ireland.

Radio WUSN Chicago radio will broadcast live from Dublin and Galway during the St Patrick's festival. WMLB Atlanta radio will broadcast from Dublin, Cork and Limerick during the St Patrick's festivities. KITZ Seattle radio will tour Ireland during the St Patrick's festivities. MTN Michigan radio will broadcast live from Co Kerry and Co Clare during St Patrick's week.
Travel Classics Tourism Ireland is thrilled to announce that the Travel Classics writer's conference will take place in Northern Ireland this year. The new Fitzwilliam Hotel, Belfast will be the location for the conference, from Thursday 28th May - Sunday 31st May 2009. Pre and post tours will also visit selected locations around NI. The Travel Classics writer's conference brings together the very best of US travel writers and editors in a forum designed to preserve and celebrate writing, in venues considered as "the best places on earth". Already signed up to attend this year in Belfast are editors from Gourmet Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Food and Wine, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, The Robb report, Bon Appetit, Travel and Leisure Golf, Islands magazine, Links magazine...

Events and Sponsorship

Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra Tourism Ireland teamed up with the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra to present their 49 city coast-to-coast tour of the United States which commenced in Florida on January 10th.
Philadelphia Flower Show TI brought three superb Garden ambassadors from Ireland to lecture at this world famous event and hosted receptions and lectures for top tier garden writers and travel writers.
Volvo Ocean Race Tourism Ireland to host a series of events at The Irish Waterfront Festival which we will create at the Fan Pier in Boston. The Festival will run during the week of the Boston stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race beginning May 15 and include the full gamit of the Irish experience such as singing, dancing, culture, heritage, culinary and golf.
Celtic Thunder Tourism Ireland sponsored Celtic Thunder's US tour and have subsequently secured their services for high profile TI events.

Access

The access strategy for 2009 is clear. To maximize load factors this year and to plan for future expansion. Aggressive cooperative campaigns have been established with carrier partners with whom we are in constant communication. Maintaining current direct services is critically important. There are some cutbacks with plans for new services deferred and some switches from Shannon to Dublin.

We expect to lose 10% capacity approx this peak. Our own and carrier coop efforts are designed to make sure 122 flights per week in 2009 peak, from 8 US gateways to BFS, DUB & SNN (was 103 in 2005 and 145 in 2007), fly as full as possible. We also must ensure 15 flights per week in 2009 peak from 4 Canadian gateways to BFS, DUB & SNN (was 16 in 2005 and 18 in 2008), also carry as many as possible.

Continental Airlines provides daily service from Newark to Belfast, Dublin and Shannon.
Aer Lingus, operates daily flights from New York to Shannon and Dublin. It also features daily service from both Boston and Chicago to Shannon and Dublin. Flights from San Francisco to Shannon and Dublin operate five days a week in the peak season. There is also service from Washington Dulles to Shannon and Dublin and from Orlando, Florida to Shannon and Dublin three times each week.
American Airlines service is from Boston to Shannon and Chicago to Dublin.
Delta Air Lines offers daily service from Atlanta to Shannon and Dublin. And now also offers daily service from New York to Dublin and Shannon.
U.S. Airways has a scheduled daily service from Philadelphia to Shannon and Dublin.

Meet the Team...

Joe Byrne Executive Vice President - North America	Alison Metcalfe Vice President Marketing - U.S.	Marie Fullington Vice President Strategic Marketing US & Canada
Bernie Kitt Finance, Planning & Reporting Executive	Una Galligan Travel Advisor /Receptionist	Eileen Power Marketing Assistant
Mary O'Shea Advertising & Direct Marketing Executive	Ellen Talbot Executive Assistant/HR Administrator	Aisling Studdert E-Marketing & CRM Executive
Orla Carey Advertising & Direct Marketing Manager	Ruth Moran Publicity & Communications Manager	Fiona Dunne Promotions Manager
Breeda Burns Promotions & Product Assistant	Marie Duffy Strategic Marketing Assistant	John Costelloe Advertising & Direct & E-Marketing Assistant
Bernard McMullan Publicity & Communications Executive	Marie McKown Promotions Executive - Business Tourism and Midwest	Hillarie McGuinness Trade Promotions Executive
Jean McCluskey Trade Promotions Executive	Tom Heneghan Promotions Executive - Luxury, Group Travel & West Coast

Photo Gallery

Images from Tourism Ireland sponsorships and events from first quarter activities.

Visit the gallery

Collaboration

Tourism Ireland has worked closely with its sister agencies on the island of Ireland, particularly in the development of this website. Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority of the Republic of Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board have both provided this site with database records and product information.

Tourism Ireland Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee without a Share Capital, Registered in Ireland No. 336370, Bishop's Square, Redmond's Hill, Dublin 2.