Tourism Ireland has launched details of its marketing strategy and plans to promote the island of Ireland overseas in 2023, at an event attended by Tourism Minister Catherine Martin and around 500 tourism industry leaders from around the country, including the Irish Caravan & Camping Council, based in Mitchelstown.
The aim is to rebuild revenue from overseas holidaymakers to pre-pandemic levels – by attracting ‘value-adding tourists’ (visitors who stay longer, spend more in the regions and in Northern Ireland, arrive during the shoulder season and consider their impact on the environment) and by focusing on markets that deliver the greatest revenue.
This will be achieved through a wide range of promotional activities, including major marketing campaigns, publicity and programming, social media and digital marketing, as well as working with the tourism industry at home and the travel trade overseas to facilitate sales. An extensive and targeted programme of activity with a marketing budget of €78 million will roll out this year.
Sustainability will be at the heart of Tourism Ireland’s work over the coming years. As well as focusing on the economic sustainability of the tourism industry (the contribution overseas tourism makes to economic prosperity and, in particular, to jobs and livelihoods), the strategy also has social sustainability (the benefit that communities across the island experience from overseas tourism) and environmental sustainability at its core.
New global campaign
Tourism Ireland’s new global campaign – ‘Fill your heart with Ireland’ – was unveiled at the launch. The new ads feature actresses Sharon Horgan, from Bad Sisters, and Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, from Derry Girls. The new campaign will go live from St Patrick’s Day in our top four tourism markets – Great Britain, the United States, Germany and France – and will then be rolled out in nine other important tourism markets around the world.
In 2022, Tourism Ireland’s focus was to RESTART overseas tourism to the island of Ireland. As the year unfolded, international travel rebounded more quickly than anticipated, with 2022 finishing at around 75% of 2019 business. Factors like pent-up demand for travel, deferred bookings and accumulated savings led to a surge in travel to Ireland. Air and sea capacity also returned at a faster rate than expected.
The priority for this year will be to REBUILD tourism to the island of Ireland.
