Tourism Ireland wants to inspire visitors to “discover hidden gems” across the island, amid a push into seasonal activity in March and October and “slow tourism”.
Speaking at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, Tourism Ireland chief executive Alice Mansergh said: “Our focus is on increasing the value of overseas tourism for economies and communities across the island, and we do that by inspiring visitors to come and then strengthening our partnerships with industry and trade.
“We are certainly focused on increasing the overall value of revenue coming in from visitors, but it’s also about spreading the goodness around the island, so you want to make sure that all of the different regions across seasons are benefiting which is how you ultimately get good quality jobs and avoid overtourism.”
She called the economic impact of tourism in Ireland “jaw-dropping”, highlighting 70% of the jobs in tourism on the island of Ireland are outside of Dublin and Belfast.
Mansergh said: “It’s a very unique industry in its ability to support rural communities, keep villages together, give people a reason to live in the place that they grew up in some of the most beautiful spots in the island and be entrepreneurial and welcome visitors.”
So far this year, she said Ireland had seen “really positive resurgence post-Covid” in terms of visitor and revenue growth across all of its major markets of North America, Great Britain and mainland Europe.
However, she noted there had been a slight decline in stay length from eight to seven days, potentially down to a drop in family and friends’ visits while holidaymaker trips “remained strong”.
St Patrick’s Day and Halloween
One way Tourism Ireland has been looking to do this is through seasonal activity around St Patrick’s Day in March and Halloween in October.
St Patrick’s Day “plays a huge role” in springtime, Mansergh said, and in the week of the event people will search four times as much for Ireland than any other week in springtime.
Meanwhile, she said Halloween had been “a really exciting focus”, especially a campaign with celebrity chef Donal Skehan clocking up 200 million views across platforms.
People who saw the campaign were twice as likely to understand Halloween started in Ireland, with origins tracing back to Celtic culture two thousand years ago, and seven out of 10 said they were more likely to visit.
Mansergh explained: “We’ve been making the connections between our ancient heritage on this topic, and then the wonderful modern-day festivals that you can attend, like Derry Halloween, which is the biggest of its type in Europe, or Púca, which is a boutique festival, right through to Macnas in Galway and so on.”
“We completed Halloween Week this Saturday, and it was the biggest and best that it’s been, so we’ll be building on that next year.”
‘Slow tourism’ initiatives
Looking ahead to next year, Tourism Ireland has worked with Fred Sireix and ITV on a new show coming out called Tour de Ireland where he cycles or ferries from the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland along the coast to Donegal.
“It is showcasing what a lot of our visitors want at the moment, which is these experiences out in nature, slow tourism, getting out and about and meeting local communities,” Mansergh said.
She highlighted research had shown that the biggest motivator to visit Ireland was “by far” for its “epic scenery” followed by “warm culture and people”, then “history and heritage”.
On this theme, the tourist board plans to launch a “slow tourism” campaign to get more people excited about biking, hiking and cycling across the country.
There are currently 900 kilometres of greenways that can be used as walking or cycle paths, often converted disused rail tracks, plus another 1,500 kilometres of greenways under development.
Waterways are also options for British tourists to consider seeing more of the country in a sustainable way, as Shannon Cruisers on the primary river in Ireland have transitioned its fleet to using treated vegetable oil as fuel and cut carbon emissions by over 90%.
“It’s a goal for us, as much as for anybody, to help people spread out and discover the hidden gems,” Mansergh said.
“When we survey people on why they come, they tend not to say I’m coming for one big thing or attraction. They’re coming for scenery and so that’s a lovely broad topic to help people uncover and there is more and more development going on on the ground to help people move around.”