Fáilte Ireland announces sponsorship of RTÉ Weather to drive recovery of tourism sector

“Domestic tourism is the foundation stone of Ireland’s tourism sector, and it will be critical to its recovery.  Fáilte Ireland’s strategic sponsorship of RTÉ Weather will enable our central message of holidaying at home to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers every week.” 

– Paul Kelly CEO Fáilte Ireland 

To help accelerate the recovery of Ireland’s tourism sector, Fáilte Ireland has announced its sponsorship of RTÉ Weather, which attracts an average daily audience of 400,000.

Repro Free: 15/12/2021 To help accelerate the recovery of Ireland’s tourism sector Fáilte Ireland has announced its sponsorship of RTÉ Weather. The 3-year sponsorship is part of Fáilte Ireland’s Keep Discovering campaign and will commence on January 1st 2022. Pictured at the launch is Paul Kelly, CEO Fáilte Ireland with Joanna Donnelly, Meteorologist, Met Eireann, Dee Forbes, Director General, RTÉ and Nuala Carey, RTÉ Weather. Picture Andres Poveda

The 3-year sponsorship is part of Fáilte Ireland’s Keep Discovering campaign and will commence on January 1^st, 2022.  The Keep Discovering message will be watched daily in hundreds of thousands of living rooms across the country and will inspire people to Keep Discovering Ireland’s huge range of incredible destinations and experiences. It will encourage more people to choose a domestic holiday and in doing so support local businesses, local jobs and communities throughout the country.

Since January of this year, the weather bulletins following RTE’s main news programmes (One, Six & Nine) on RTÉ One and RTÉ One +1 have reached 84% of all viewers. That is equivalent to over 3.7 million people having seen the weather forecast at least once since January. The average daily audience for the weather bulletins after the Six One and Nine O’ Clock news is 400,000 Individuals.

Announcing the sponsorship CEO of Fáilte Ireland Paul Kelly said: 

“Our research shows Irish people enjoy taking long and short breaks at home all year round while international visitors tend to travel predominantly during the summer season. With international travel not expected to return to pre-Covid levels until at least 2025 our investment in the sponsorship of RTÉ Weather will allow us to maximise the opportunity that domestic tourism offers as we focus on accelerating the recovery of our tourism industry.

Domestic tourism generated €2.5billion for the Irish economy in 2019 and represented one-third of all tourism revenue. Due to the enormous weekly viewership of RTÉ Weather, we expect our strategic sponsorship to significantly help boost domestic tourism year-round and drive revenue for businesses while sustaining and creating thousands of jobs in a sector that has been devastated by Covid19.  Our message will be watched daily in hundreds of thousands of living rooms across the country and will inspire people to ‘Keep Discovering’ Ireland’s huge range of incredible destinations and experiences. It will encourage more people to choose a domestic holiday and in doing so support local businesses, local jobs and communities throughout the country.”

Commercial Director for RTE, Geraldine O’Leary commented: 

“We are thrilled that Fáilte Ireland will sponsor Weather on RTÉ television and online from January 2022. This is an exciting new partnership, and we love how Fáilte Ireland has embraced the opportunity and worked closely with us to ensure that the sponsorship will resonate with the RTÉ audience, while highlighting the opportunities that abound to explore, experience and keep discovering our beautiful country.”
Niall Tracey, Director of Marketing at Fáilte Ireland adds:

“Fáilte Ireland’s investment in RTÉ Weather will be central to the execution of our domestic marketing strategy. Our objective is to inspire more people to explore more areas of the country and experience the joy and simplicity of discovery with constant and compelling reminders of the wonder a home holiday can bring. Through world class creative the weather sponsorship provides a powerful platform to constantly promote motivating reasons to travel to specific destinations, counties and events at specific times of the year.”