Tourism Ireland Aims To Attract Over Nine Million Visitors to Island of Ireland in 2007 as Ireland gains significant market share of world and European arrivals in 2006
Dublin, 4 December 2006. On the back of record visitor numbers to Ireland this year, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, T.D., launched details of Tourism Ireland's overseas marketing plans and growth strategy for 2007 before an invited audience of tourism industry leaders. Preliminary results for 2006 suggest that 8.8 million visitors will have visited the island of Ireland this year, an increase of 8.5% on 2005, according to Tourism Ireland.
Visitor numbers from all of Ireland"s key markets are forecast to exceed expectations, with a record 5+million visitors (+4%) from Great Britain this year; Mainland Europe continuing to power ahead with over 2.3 million visitors (+17%) and numbers from North America topping 1 million for the first time since 2000 (+11%). Revenue from overseas visitors to the island of Ireland is forecast at €4.2 billion, an increase of 6.4%. Bucking the trend of recent years, holidaymaker growth is forecasted to be 10%, well ahead of expectations.
Welcoming the impressive visitor and holidaymaker performance, John O"Donoghue T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said that despite many shocks and challenges, tourism had shown sustained growth in recent years and that this had been underpinned by increased Government funding.
"2006 has been one of the best years ever for overseas visits to Ireland and I look forward to even better things in the coming year with the implementation of Tourism Ireland"s strategy for growth across all markets. For my part, I have secured an unprecedented level of Exchequer resources for tourism marketing and development. The increase of 9% in the tourism budget brings the tourism allocation up to €154 million. Within that the Tourism Marketing Fund will be €45 million in 2007 a 12.5% increase on 2006 and the largest ever Exchequer budget for Irish tourism promotion. I have no doubt it will be deployed to the greatest possible effect."
Speaking at the launch, Paul O"Toole, Chief Executive said that new statistics showed that Ireland at 8.5% growth is likely to gain significant market share of both World and European arrivals which according to World Tourism Organisation forecasts will be 4.6% and 3.4% respectively.
"Tourism Ireland aims to continue to grow tourism to the island of Ireland at a higher rate of growth than international tourism. Our target next year is to grow visitor numbers to 9.3 million and revenue to €4.6 billion. In delivering that target, we believe that Mainland Europe and Great Britain will continue to be the strongest contributors to growth, followed by North America. Tourism Ireland has carried out a major review of this market which identified exciting new opportunities for Irish tourism. We have a new marketing strategy and plans to exploit those opportunities in 2007", said Paul O"Toole.
O"Toole warned that the demands of the marketplace continued to shift and evolve and that a number of factors could impinge on the ambitious growth targets. "These include external challenges such as oil prices, currency fluctuations and global socio-political uncertainty which are essentially outside of our control. However, a decline in our value for money rating and tourists" perceptions of a deterioration in the warmth of the Irish welcome and the beauty of our scenery are issues that we can and must tackle and will require a joined-up approach from all players in the tourism industry." He added that there was a more balanced spread of tourists this year which was welcome and overseas revenue is expected to contribute over €2.3 billion to the regions in 2006. However regional distribution will continue to be a focus for Tourism Ireland.
"These challenges notwithstanding, the fact that overseas tourism punched well above its weight this year, illustrates our continuing attractiveness as a holiday destination. It also underlines the effectiveness of our marketing efforts which included the roll out of our new global advertising campaign and consumer website, discoverireland.com, both of which have picked up awards throughout the year. Underpinning this year"s successful performance was the fact that we had the highest ever level of year round direct access year from all three core markets - Great Britain, Mainland Europe and the US. Direct, competitive and convenient access into all parts of the island of Ireland will remain critical for overseas tourism growth" he concluded.
-ENDS-
Further info: Fiona Scott, Tourism Ireland. 01-476-3429
NOTE TO EDITORS
2007 Targets
€4.6/£3.1 billion in tourism revenue (+8.5%) driven by 9.3 million visitors (+5.6%)/4.3 million holidaymakers (+6.9%)
Within the overall targets, Tourism Ireland forecasts that Mainland Europe (+252,000) and Great Britain (+151,000) will be the strongest contributors to growth followed by North America (+52,000) and New and Developing Markets (27,000).
To achieve Tourism Ireland"s programme of activities and strategic priorities it expects to receive €67/£46 million in 2007 - the highest ever level of funding for frontline marketing from Governments both North and South. Activities include:
Compelling Advertising and Marketing Campaigns. Tourism Ireland will promote a compelling and attractive proposition to attract visitors here and in particular, ensure that potential consumers are fully aware of the wealth of holiday choices and activities available on the island of Ireland.
Regional Spread. Tourism Ireland will seek to support effective spatial distribution of overseas visitors and revenue throughout the island. We will continue to promote the Super Regions initiative launched earlier in the year. In addition, new regional marketing campaigns have been developed around product themes, such as gourmet food, music, castles, literature, arts, Christian heritage and gardens. New cultural products will also be highlighted.
Partnership Opportunities with Industry. To ensure the Ireland holiday choices are both visible and purchasable to overseas consumers, we will assist tourism enterprises and providers in getting their product and offers out into the global shop window and in particular the e-shop window via www.discoverireland.com.
Sustaining Direct Access To make the decision to holiday in Ireland even more attractive, Tourism Ireland will continue to work with carriers to encourage additional direct, convenient and competitive access to all parts of the island.
Northern Ireland Tourism Ireland will continue to focus on achieving additional growth for Northern Ireland, to help it realise its tourism potential.
Strategic Reviews Tourism Ireland has proactively engaged in root and branch reviews of key overseas markets over the past two years. These are the European Review (2004) Project Britain (2005) North America (2006) and New and Developing Markets (2006/07). Implementing the findings of the European and GB reviews has been key to achieving recovery and good growth from these markets. Tourism Ireland has already commenced the action plan arising from the North American review and will launch and implement the NDM strategy in early 2007.
Tourism Ireland: Review of the Year Highlights
>Facts & Figures
Preliminary results for the year show a record 8.8m visitors - 7.4 m ROI; 1.8m NI - to the island of Ireland. This is an additional 690,000 visitors overall.
The island of Ireland gained significant market share + 8.5% over top global holiday destinations when benchmarked against World Tourism Organisation forecasts for global growth rate of +4.6% and 3.4% to Europe.
Projected total revenue generated: €4.23 billion, an increase of 6.4%. (€3.7billion - Republic of Ireland; €.5m - Northern Ireland)
Visitors from North America topped 1 million for the first time since a record high in 2000.
A record breaking 5+ million visitors came to the island of Ireland from Great Britain.
BREAKDOWN OF VISITORS BY MAIN MARKET AREA - 2006 FORECAST
ALL-ISLAND FORECAST (ROI FORECAST)
GREAT BRITAIN 5.01m (3.9m)
NORTH AMERICA 1.10m (1.0m)
MAINLAND EUROPE 2.30m (2.2m)
NEW & DEVELOPING MARKETS 0.3m (0.3m)
1,700+ overseas media visited the island of Ireland generating 3,760 major articles and broadcasts, valued at €71million (Jan-Oct 06) and 1,800 overseas trade came on familiarisation trips during the year.
Access Development
Access to the island of Ireland was at an all time high in 2006 both at peak summer and winter seasons. Summer access saw an additional 51,000 seats by air each week, with the increased capacity coming from the US, Mainland Europe and Great Britain. Ferries provided a quarter of a million seats each week in the summer season. Air access in Winter 06 is up 14% on last year. A key focus of Tourism Ireland"s work is to act as strategic partners to air and sea carriers and to provide maximum promotional support. We intensified this work in 2006 and actively worked with carriers and airports to maximise awareness of existing routes and to secure additional route developments over the year.
Next Generation Website
In March 2006, Tourism Ireland launched its new consumer website www.discoverireland.com, - the largest ever indigenous web-project undertaken on the island of Ireland. The €2.6 million global web development project promotes the island of Ireland as a holiday destination in 35 markets worldwide in 14 different languages. Discoverireland.com features information mined from a database of over 30,000 tourism products including accommodation, festivals, attractions and events. Information is updated on a daily basis making it the most dynamic and comprehensive all-island tourism database ever for overseas tourists. Five million people visited the site in 2006, there was a +22% increase in unique visitors to the website and an increase of +27% in click-throughs to tourism partners.
New Marketing Communications Campaign
Our new global advertising campaign kicked off in January 2006, part of a new suite of global marketing communications. The three year €50m ad campaign, produced by JWT (J. Walter Thompson) was firmly rooted in consumer research in key markets across the globe. In the UK, the ad campaign was listed in Marketing Magazine"s Adwatch column as one of the top 20 most recalled ads by British TV viewers along with household brands L"Oreal, McDonalds and Coca-Cola. The ad campaign has an estimated audience of 200 million people worldwide this year.
Tourism Ireland also picked up the prestigious ATLAS Award for Best Branding for an International Destination for 2006 presented by the Association of Travel Marketing Executives in the US.
Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup provided a unique springboard on which to leverage Ireland"s profile overseas both as a golfing and holiday destination and our teams around the world exploited all possible opportunities. In addition to our core marketing budget, Tourism Ireland was allocated an additional €3m funding to carry out an extensive marketing programme in key overseas markets. The event was a resounding success for Ireland and received extensive positive coverage worldwide. To harness this success in the immediate term, Tourism Ireland, in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland, organised a workshop attended by 65 major international golf tour operators in Dublin in October.
North America Review
Tourism Ireland"s root and branch review of the North American market is the third in a series of strategic assessments of the performance and potential of Ireland"s key source markets for tourism. The review encompassed an in-depth examination of prevailing market conditions, the competition, assessment of existing marketing programmes and operating resources and the identification of where our best prospects for growth lie, resulting in a new marketing strategy and action plan for 2007. North America: Land of Opportunity. An Action Plan for Growing Tourism from the United States and Canada to the Island of Ireland is available to download from www.tourismireland.com/corporate.
Super Regions
The Minister for Tourism announced additional funding to support regional tourism at the end of February 06, €3m of which was allocated to a new marketing initiative developed by Tourism Ireland for overseas markets, the "Super Regions". "Super Regions" are new strategic marketing alliances between adjoining tourism regions in Ireland for the purposes of overseas promotion. Each of the "Super Regions"was allocated €1 million to fund specially created campaigns which highlight the attractions of the area, ease of access by sea and air as well as presenting good value packages from the industry. The "Super Regions" are Ireland South (South East, Cork/Kerry); Ireland East & Dublin (Dublin, East Coast and Midlands) and an enhanced programme to build on the success of Ireland"s Western Regions (Shannon, Ireland West, North West.) "Super Regions" advertising was rolled out in September to co-incide with the launch of Tourism Ireland"s Autumn Campaign in GB and other markets.
New Office in China
Tourism Irelands opened its first office in China in June 2006. The office is based in Shanghai and it represents continuing expansion in Asia and recognition of the growing importance of the significance of the Chinese tourism market for Ireland. Tourism Ireland already has a Chinese website and brochures translated into Mandarin and Cantonese.
Tourism Ireland Representatives Appointed in India & Dubai
According to the World Tourism Organisation, an estimated 50 million of the population of India will travel overseas by 2020. This is a new and development market for Ireland and Tourism Ireland is gearing up to win Ireland"s share of this burgeoning new market. Two representatives have been appointed in Mumbai who are building up market intelligence as well as promoting Ireland as a holiday destination. In addition to the tourism aspect, the Bollywood phenomenon is a highly lucrative business segment, and Tourism Ireland is working closely with the Irish Film Board to exploit further new opportunities. Eleven Bollywood films have filmed on location in Ireland over the last two years.
Following the introduction of new air services by Gulf Air and Aer Lingus to Bahrain and Dubai respectively, Tourism Ireland also appointed a representative in Dubai which serves as an important gateway for traffic from India and other long-haul destinations.