Tourism Ireland Appoints Expert Group for Major Brand Review
Positive Start to Tourism Year Welcomed
Tourism Ireland has announced the appointment of an Expert Group to assist the organisation in a major review of the island of Ireland tourism brand. The group consists of local and international business people, as well as marketing and brand professionals not involved in the tourism industry. They are David Nichols, Chairman; Professor David Carson, Trevor Ringland, Mark Thompson, John Fanning, Dr. Maureen Gaffney, Ciarán Ó Gaora and Regine Reinhardt.
The last comprehensive review of the island of Ireland brand was undertaken in 1995 which led to the development of an all-island tourism brand. This has been used in all overseas marketing communications since that time and was further refined in 2001 and 2004 to reflect the changing nature of the island. The current expression of the brand has served the all-island destination well and has been a key contributor to attracting increasing visitor numbers, culminating in a record 8.8 million overseas visitors in 2006.
The review will be comprehensive, incorporating all aspects of the brand from a tourism and a wider island perspective and will include extensive research amongst consumers and trade in overseas markets, as well as consultation with both industry and stakeholders on the island of Ireland, including members of the public. “Input from the tourism industry is vitally important to the brand review. This will be enhanced, in today’s competitive global environment, by securing as wide a perspective as possible. I believe the Expert Group will bring an objective and broad viewpoint to the process, incorporating perspectives from both Northern Ireland and the South,” said Paul O’Toole, Chief Executive, Tourism Ireland.
Direct Air Access to Ireland at all time high this Summer
This summer will see the highest ever level of direct air access into the island of Ireland, according to Tourism Ireland. Air capacity has grown by 7% since last year, representing an additional 31,200 seats each week to the island.
Northern Ireland in particular is set to share in this growth, with 103,981 seats into its airports this summer – an increase of 9% over last year. Capacity from mainland Europe is growing by an additional 7,000 seats per week, almost double the level in summer 2006. The rise has been driven by increased capacity from Spain and Italy as well as new services from Poland. Capacity from Great Britain to Northern Ireland is also up this summer, with an extra 1,382 seats inbound each week, an increase of 2% over last year. Direct access from North America has also increased with the introduction of a new weekly Hamilton / Belfast service by FlyGlobespan, the extension of Zoom Airlines’ weekly Vancouver / Belfast service to a year-round schedule (effective from October) as well as the ongoing daily New York /Belfast service with Continental Airlines.
In addition to air access, a total of 266 ferry services will provide just under 58,400 car spaces per week on services to/from the island of Ireland this summer – 54% of these, at 26,740, will be on Northern Ireland routes. Tourism Ireland welcomes reports from sea carriers which indicate renewed interest from visitors in car ferry travel to the island of Ireland. Research shows that visitors who come here with their cars, or who hire one while here, stay longer, spend more and travel more extensively around the countryside.
Tourism Ireland is optimistic that the increased air capacity, in tandem with the range of excellent quality ferry services to these shores, augurs well for overseas tourism business this summer. Ambitious targets of £3.05bn revenue, driven by 9.3m visitors, have been set for Tourism Ireland in 2007.
Paul O’Toole, Chief Executive, Tourism Ireland said that development of direct, convenient and competitive access services continues to be critical to achieving tourism growth and strategic targets. “Tourism Ireland is delighted to build on the work it carried out with Air Route Development Northern Ireland and the
Northern Ireland Tourist Board to encourage the development of new air access from key overseas markets to Northern Ireland and we are very heartened by the growth we’ve seen from Mainland Europe, in particular. We also welcome reports of renewed interest in travel by ferry this year. We have been working closely with the car ferry operators to promote car touring holidays. All of this provides an excellent basis on which to grow overseas tourism business into Northern Ireland this summer and anecdotal reports from key industry sectors suggest a positive start to the year.”
-Ends-
Further information:
Sonya Cassidy, Weber Shandwick, Tel 028 90761007
Clair Balmer, Tourism Ireland, Tel 07766 527719
Note to editors: biogs of Expert Group below
David Nichols - Chair
He started his career at OC&C Strategy consultants, moving on to the marketing consultancy Added Value where he spent 11 years rising to be Managing Director of the UK, including stints in Paris and as MD in Australia.
In 2006, he teamed up with David Taylor to become a Managing Partner of the Brandgym, a consultancy that coaches teams to create a clear brand vision and the action plan to turn this into growth. He has led brand vision and innovation projects for many global companies and brands including Royal & SunAlliance, Castrol, Vodafone, Unilever and Cadburys.
David is the author of “Return on Ideas: A practical guide to making innovation pay”, published in April 2007. It’s a practical guide to getting more bang for your buck from your innovation process.
David’s first book, “Brands & Gaming: The computer gaming phenomenon and its impact on brands and business”, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2005, cataloguing the rise and rise of a new global cultural phenomenon that is going to change the marketing landscape forever.
David has written and produced three full scale musicals and managed a professional improv troupe, The Impro Musical, working with Tony Slattery, Eddie Izzard and Greg Proops.
He has a first class degree in Aerospace Engineering from Bristol University and in his spare time is an aerobatic pilot.
Professor David Carson
David Carson is President of the Academy of Marketing UK, the foremost representative body of marketing academics in the UK and Ireland. He is also President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Ireland; a Fellow of the (CIM); and a member of the CIM Academic Senate.
David has been a Visiting Professor at numerous universities abroad, for example, universities in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia; University of Auckland, New Zealand; and University of Bahrain.
He has wide experience in middle and senior management training in service industries including organisations such as Walt Disney World and Cadogan Holidays. Also, he has worked with hundreds of SMEs in Ireland and elsewhere and has published widely in SME and Entrepreneurial Marketing.
Mark Thompson
A member of the Chartered Society of Designers, and with a B.A. (Hons) in Design from the University of Ulster, Mark has spent 14 years working in Northern Ireland’s biggest advertising and communications groups. After three years with Anderson Advertising, he joined the GCAS Group, becoming Managing Director of GCAS Design in 2000.
During his time with GCAS he designed the acclaimed corporate identity for the Northern Ireland Executive and its departments, created the packaging for a number of multi-million pound food brands (such as celebrity chef Paul Rankin’s “Rankin Selection”) and forged links between GCAS and Conran Design Group in London. Mark describes his work as “communication, not decoration”.
Under his direction, GCAS Design was the only Northern Ireland design practice appointed to provide brand design and brand creation services to Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board. He also led the brand creation and corporate identity process for Firmus Energy, the new Northern Ireland division of Bord Gáis Éireann.
GCAS was acquired by the AV Browne Group in June 2006, where Mark worked for one year following the acquisition. During this time, his “Take A Closer Look” print design work for OFMDFM was launched at the 2007 Northern Ireland Bureau St Patrick’s Day reception in Washington DC.
Mark was appointed to the board of the Ulster-Scots Agency in June 2005, and became Chair in October of the same year. He has worked to establish a credible, positive, mainstream profile for Ulster-Scots identity in all its forms, and is committed to making the Agency more communications focused.
Mark is married with three children, and still lives close to where he grew up, on the Scottish facing coast of the Ards Peninsula in County Down.
Trevor Ringland
Trevor is from Larne. He has earned a high reputation in the field of litigation in Northern Ireland, particularly as a defence litigator. He holds a Certificate in Mediation from the Law Society of Northern Ireland and is certified as a Solicitor Advocate by the Law Society of Northern Ireland/National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He is also a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers. Trevor is a former British and Irish Lions Rugby International and is well known for his public profile on issues of reconciliation, cross-community activity and charity work. He is married with three children.
John Fanning
John Fanning is a graduate of UCD. He worked in Market Research in London for seven years before joining McConnells in 1972 where he was appointed Managing Director in 1982. He became Chairman in January 2000.
John is an ex-Chairman of the Marketing Society and The Marketing Institute. A frequent speaker and writer on marketing and advertising in Ireland, he has also given papers on advertising research to the Annual Conference of the European Market Research Society.
John has written a series of papers on branding and marketing communications published by the Irish Marketing Review and his own book, “The Importance of Being Branded: An Irish Perspective”, was published in March 2006.
Dr. Maureen Gaffney
Dr. Maureen Gaffney holds two government positions: Chair of the National Economic and Social Forum which advises Government on economic and social issues; she is also a member of the Board of the Health Service Executive which runs the National Health Service. She is Chair of the International Advisory Committee of the Foresight exercise recently initiated by the Department of the Taoiseach. She worked for many years in Trinity College Dublin as Director of the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology. She served as a Law Reform Commissioner for ten years, is a former Chairman of the Council of the Insurance Ombudsman of Ireland and has served on a number of other boards. She runs her own consultancy business specialising in leadership development, Emotional Intelligence in the workplace, and Executive Coaching and has worked in Ireland, the UK, Israel and the US.
A well known broadcaster, writer and columnist, she is listed in Who’s Who in Ireland, has been profiled a number of times in the Irish national media and has been listed by two national newspapers as one of the 50 most influential women in Ireland. She is a patron of the Hope Foundation, President of the Dublin County Choir and is a former member of the Central Council of the Irish Red Cross Society. She earned her B.A. in Psychology at University College Cork, her M.A. in Behavioural Sciences at the University of Chicago and her PhD at Trinity College Dublin.
Ciarán Ó Gaora
Ciarán Ó Gaora is Managing Director of Zero-G, a Dublin-based brand consultancy. He is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design where he studied Industrial Design and Visual Communications. Prior to establishing Zero-G in 2004 Ciarán worked with Proforma, Rotterdam (1992-1995) and was Partner and Creative Director with Designworks, Dublin (1995–2003). He has worked with public and private clients across a broad range of sectors including culture, tourism, science and innovation, retail, health and government. He is a Director of the Corn Exchange Theatre Company; and a Director of seedartscience – a charity that promotes dialogue between the arts and science – and was Deputy Commissioner for Ireland’s entry at the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2006.
Regine Reinhardt
Born and bred in Berlin, Regine Reinhardt studied Business Administration and Art History at the Technical University Berlin, thereafter working in the arts sponsoring sector, with major banks such as Deutsche Bank. After spending two years abroad, one in Boston, Massachusetts, and one as an Erasmus exchange student at Trinity College Dublin, Regine finished her bachelor in Art History in Berlin. While studying, among other jobs, Regine worked as a Marketing and PR assistant for the Irish Trade Board in Berlin. In 1998 she started a doctoral thesis in Art History. Since then, Regine has worked in different, but complementary fields as a travel guide in Ireland and Berlin; programming walking and cultural trips to Ireland, and city tours and cultural events in Berlin; as a freelance journalist for DIE WELT, FAZ, Rheinischer Merkur, Berliner Zeitung, irland journal and others for both travel and art market sections and as an Art History lecturer.
Having lived in Dublin in 1992/3, Regine has been strongly attached to the island of Ireland ever since. Her experience as a tour guide and travel planner in Kerry, Galway and Mayo in 2002/3 led to Regine’s first travel writing. Ireland has become a major field of Regine’s professional interests and she has frequently visited and explored the island since 1992.