13 May 2016
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
A group of top travel and lifestyle journalists from Germany has been visiting Cork this week, as guests of Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland.
Representing various newspapers and a women’s magazine, with a combined readership of more than 730,000 Germans, the journalists flew to Cork Airport on the brand new Aer Lingus flight from Düsseldorf. The flight – which began earlier this month – is really good news for tourism to Cork and Tourism Ireland will be taking every opportunity to highlight the new route to prospective German holidaymakers.
During their time here, the visiting journalists sampled some of the city’s fine cuisine on a ‘Fab Food Trail’ culinary walking tour – taking in places like the English Market, Nash 19 and FILTER coffee shop. Their packed programme included tours of Blackrock Castle Observatory, the Rising Sons Brewery and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery. Outside of Cork city, they visited the Jameson Experience in Midleton and Fota Wildlife Park and also enjoyed a cruise of Kinsale Harbour. They stayed at Hayfield Manor during their time in Cork.
Zoë Redmond, Tourism Ireland’s manager for Central Europe, said: “Tourism Ireland was delighted to invite this group of journalists to Cork. Fact-finding visits like this are very important; they are a really effective way for us to get positive exposure for Ireland through the media in Germany, helping us to showcase what Cork has to offer German holidaymakers.
“The new Aer Lingus flight from Düsseldorf to Cork is really great news and will expand travel options for German holidaymakers wishing to visit Cork and the South of Ireland this year. The visit by this group of journalists this week is just one element of our programme of activity to promote the service. Tourism Ireland is working closely with Aer Lingus, Cork Airport and other tourism interests, to drive demand for this new flight and to help maintain our vital network of routes.”
Germany is the third-largest market for tourism to Ireland and is estimated to be worth close to €400 million annually to our economy. Last year was a record year for Irish tourism from Germany – when we welcomed almost 630,000 German visitors, an increase of +13% on 2014. Tourism Ireland is rolling out an extensive programme of promotional activity again in 2016 – to keep the momentum going and build on that growth.
