Tourism Ireland launched its latest Global Greening campaign – to light up world landmarks for St Patrick’s Day – this week. But Ireland is also returning the favour, and for the third year in a row, some of Dublin’s best-known buildings are lighting up in red to mark the 2018 Chinese New Year and welcome the Year of the Dog, which begins on Friday, February 16.
The illumination has been organised by the Dublin Chinese New Year Festival in conjunction with Dublin City Council. The campaign comes as Ireland gets set to welcome its first direct flights this summer from Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, and with Hainan Airlines set to launch a service from Beijing to Dublin.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, Mícheál Mac Donncha, Lord Mayor of Dublin and HE Dr Yue Xiaoyong, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, at City Hall as Dublin goes red for Chinese new year. Photos: Shane O’Neill, SON Photographic
Numerous civic buildings and other sites around Dublin are illuminated in red this week, including Brown Thomas,Carmichael House, City Hall, Civic Offices in Wood Quay, The Convention Centre Dublin (The CCD), Guinness Storehouse, The Mansion House, National Concert Hall, St Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, Sin É and The Westin Hotel.
Other places around Ireland celebrating Chinese New Year by lighting in red include: Cork City Hall, The Capitol on Grand Parade and One Albert Quay in Cork, CityNorth Hotel near Gormanston, Kildare Village, Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry and Newbridge Silverware.
Tourism Ireland in China will share images of the various sites illuminated in red – via its social media networks (over 152,000 followers on the microblogging platform Weibo and on Tencent’s WeChat messaging app).
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Tourism Ireland is delighted that Chinese New Year is being celebrated in Dublin once again this year, with many of our historic civic buildings lighting up in red. The illumination indicates a gesture of genuine friendship and a desire to further enhance the positive relations between China and Ireland.
“China is an important emerging travel market and one that Tourism Ireland is committed to growing over the coming years. In 2017, we welcomed an estimated 70,000 Chinese visitors to the island of Ireland.”
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