18 March 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, was
in Italy this week, as part of a ‘Promote Ireland’ programme around St
Patrick’s Day – helping to promote tourism to Ireland in 2015.
The visit by Minister Coveney coincided with the ‘greening’ of the
Colosseum in Rome – which is participating in Tourism Ireland’s Global
Greening initiative for the first time in 2015.
Tourism Ireland’s St Patrick’s 2015 programme will span Great Britain,
Mainland Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as
emerging tourism markets like China, India, the Middle East and South
Africa. More than 150 landmark buildings and iconic sites around the
world are going green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. In Italy, as well
as the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is also joining Tourism
Ireland’s Global Greening initiative this year.
Niamh Kinsella, Tourism Ireland’s manager in Italy, said: “We are
delighted that Minister Coveney was with us in Italy for the important
St Patrick’s period, to help us deliver the message about the many
great reasons to visit Ireland this year. In 2014, we welcomed almost
258,000 visitors from Italy to Ireland. Tourism Ireland has a busy
programme of promotions under way in 2015, to keep the momentum going
and build on that success.”
Tourism Ireland’s programme of activity in Italy this year includes
co-operative activity with key airline partners like Aer Lingus,
Ryanair and Jet2 – to highlight, and drive demand for, flights from
Italy to the island of Ireland. Campaigns with some of the top online
travel agents like eDreams, Logitravel and Volagratis will run in
April and May. Tourism Ireland is very active on social media in
Italy, with almost 170,000 Facebook fans and almost 7,000 followers on
Twitter. The organisation also operates a busy, year-round programme
of PR and publicity, which includes press trips to Ireland for key
travel and lifestyle journalists, as well as the distribution of
regular e-newsletters and press releases. Tourism Ireland’s publicity
programme in Italy in 2015 will generate positive media coverage for
Ireland worth more than €15.5 million. Tourism Ireland is also working
closely with Bord Bia and Irish government representatives on the
Irish Pavilion for Expo 2015, where it will host events for key
Italian media and travel trade contacts.
