With falling visitor numbers from Britain a concern, Tourism Ireland has teamed up with Stena Line and Rosslare Europort to promote Ireland’s Ancient East, particularly Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny.
The joint campaign – supported by Wexford, Waterford and Kilkenny County Councils – is under way, highlighting ease of access via the Stena Line ferry service from Fishguard to Rosslare. A similar campaign was rolled out this spring.
The campaign is targeting the higher-end ‘culturally curious’ audience in Britain and includes radio ads, reaching some 1.73m listeners in London, South West England and South Wales, on Classic FM, Smooth Radio and regional radio stations; online ads on popular websites, reaching millions more British travellers; and ads on Facebook.
Ancient East advertising campaign
As well as highlighting ease of access, the ads are encouraging British holidaymakers to “Stir your soul … Drive over to Ireland’s Ancient East”.
Julie Wakley, Tourism Ireland’s Deputy Head of Britain, said: “Our aim is to boost car touring visitor numbers to the South East and Ireland over the coming months; visitors who bring their car on holidays tend to stay longer, spend more and are more likely to visit more than one region.Britain is a vital market for tourism to the island of Ireland. It delivers 47pc of all overseas visitors and around 30pc of all overseas tourism revenue. However, the decline in the value of sterling is certainly a challenge for Irish tourism from Britain right now, which means that competitiveness and the value for money message are more important than ever.
“Tourism Ireland is placing a greater focus on our ‘culturally curious’ audience, who are less impacted by currency fluctuations. We are also undertaking an expanded programme with key partners, like this campaign with Stena Line, communicating a strong price-led message.”
