Offaly delegation visits Tourism Ireland in New York

Representatives of Offaly County Council, who are in New York for the St Patrick’s Day period, met with senior executives from Tourism Ireland in New York this week. They were briefed on Tourism Ireland’s extensive promotional programme for 2016, which is in full swing right now.

Deirdre O’Brien, Tourism Ireland; Declan Kirrane, Director of Services, Offaly County Council; Éamon Dooley, Chairman of Offaly County Council; and Orla Carey, Tourism Ireland, in the Tourism Ireland office in New York.

Tourism Ireland aims to build on the success of 2015, which was the third record-breaking year in a row for Irish tourism from the United States.

Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America, said: “Tourism Ireland is undertaking an extensive programme of promotional activity again this year – to build on the success of 2015. Our ambition is to grow visitor numbers from the United States by a further +7% in 2016.

“St Patrick’s Day traditionally marks the real start of the tourism season for us; our aim is to bring a smile to the faces of people everywhere and to convey the message that Ireland offers the warmest of welcomes and great fun, as well as wonderful scenery and heritage. We are using every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland’s heightened profile this week; the saturation coverage about Ireland at this time of year – across the airwaves, in newspapers and digital media – is an invaluable boost for our overall tourism marketing drive in 2016.”

This week, Tourism Ireland is participating in and promoting the island of Ireland at a range of St Patrick’s Day activities across the United States. For the first time ever, 7 World Trade Center at Ground Zero in New York, the famous Boston Red Sox (baseball team) and Reunion Tower in Dallas will participate in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening initiative to celebrate St Patrick and Ireland. Other major landmarks to be illuminated in green include the Empire State Building, the famous ‘Welcome’ sign in Las Vegas and the world-famous Niagara Falls.

And Chicago will be going all out to celebrate St Patrick and Ireland once again this year, with numerous buildings and sites across the city ‘seeing green’ – including Navy Pier, the John Hancock Center, Soldier Field (home to the famous Chicago Bears team), the Wrigley Building, Chicago Gaelic Park and One Prudential Plaza.