Tourism Ireland launches
2020 marketing plans
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland; Tourism Minister Brendan Griffin; and Joan O’Shaughnessy, Chairman of Tourism Ireland, at the
launch of Tourism Ireland’s marketing strategy for 2020-2022 and its marketing plans for 2020.
Sustainable destination marketing
principles underpin Tourism Ireland’s
three-year strategy.
Tourism Ireland launched details of its new three-year strategy
for 2020-2022 and its marketing plans to promote the island
of Ireland overseas next year, at an event attended by Tourism
Minister Brendan Griffin and around 500 tourism industry
leaders from around the country.
The aim is to grow overseas tourism revenue to €6.54 billion
(+13%) and visitor numbers to 12 million (+7%), by 2022.
The 2020-2022 strategy has been designed to be both flexible
and sustainable – while delivering further growth in overseas
tourism and supporting the industry across the island of Ireland.
Tourism Ireland aims to spread the benefits of tourism more
broadly across the island of Ireland on a year-round basis and to
address the issues of capacity, to ensure the visitor experience
continues to be world-class. The new strategy is built on a set of
sustainable destination marketing principles.
The period 2020-2022 will see Tourism Ireland transform its
digital platforms and re-develop its entire suite of Ireland.com
websites – which attracted more than 23 million visits this
year – to ensure its digital marketing continues to be ‘best in
class’ in the 2020s. It will use big data and artificial intelligence
to reach potential visitors; this new technology will also allow
Tourism Ireland to re-target visitors and potential visitors with
personalised messages and offers, designed to appeal to their
specific interests.
Speaking at the launch, Minister for Tourism and Sport, Brendan
Griffin TD, said: “I am delighted to be here today with Tourism
Ireland, as they launch their strategy for 2020-2022 and marketing
plans for next year. I have been hugely impressed by the hard work
and dedication of the Tourism Ireland team at home and overseas
during what has been a somewhat challenging year for tourism.
While performance in the sector this year has been mixed, we
are still in line to see a contribution of well over €5 billion to our
economy from overseas tourists in 2019.
“Despite the challenges we have faced this year, we head into
2020 in a relatively strong position. The additional funding made
available to Tourism Ireland at the end of 2019 will support
accelerated tourism marketing initiatives aimed at mitigating the
impacts of Brexit. In Budget 2020, Minister Ross and I secured
an allocation of almost €186 million for tourism, up 10% on
the 2019 allocation, which puts the sector in a strong position
to grow next year. Earlier this year, on the recommendation
of Minister Ross and I, the Government adopted revised
performance targets for Irish tourism out to 2025. The primary
target is to achieve €6.5 billion in revenue from overseas tourism
by 2025. While this is a challenging target, we must seek to
reach it in a way that is sustainable. I am glad to see that within
Tourism Ireland’s plans for next year there is a strong focus on
sustainability through spreading our tourism business more
evenly around the entire island and encouraging more visitors in
the off-season.”
“Throughout 2019, Tourism Ireland undertook a packed
programme of promotions, to bring Ireland to the attention of
travellers everywhere. Thousands of opportunities were created
for potential visitors around the world to read, hear or watch
positive messages about Ireland; Tourism Ireland estimates
that this media exposure is worth an estimated €350 million in
equivalent advertising value.”
• T
ourism Ireland is the organisation responsible for promoting
the island of Ireland overseas as a leading holiday destination.
• T
ourism is the island of Ireland’s largest indigenous industry;
responsible for in excess of 4% of GNP in the Republic of
Ireland and employing around 325,000 people across the
island.
• I n 2019, it welcomed almost 11.2 million overseas visitors to
the island of Ireland, delivering revenue of almost €5.8 billion.
• T
ourism Ireland’s international website is www.ireland.com,
29 market sites available in 11 language versions around the
world, which attracted around 23+ million visitors in 2019.
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