Tourism Ireland and Ryanair campaign to reach 5.5m Brits

Tourism Ireland has partnered with budget airline Ryanair to launch a large-scale campaign to entice Brits to the nation’s Wild Atlantic Way.

The campaign will promote flights between Cork – widely recognised as an important gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way – and London Stansted and Liverpool John Lennon airports.

It is expected the 5.5m people across Britain will be reached with the campaign, which will include adverts on Liverpool’s Radio City station and online ads on popular websites targeting people living around the two airports. The campaign will run until mid-May.

Julie Wakely, Tourism Ireland’s deputy head of Great Britain, said that the campaign would be one component of an “extensive programme of promotions throughout 2017 to highlight Ireland to British travellers.”

Of the Ryanair partnership, she added: “As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated – they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in inbound tourism.”

Tourism accounts of 4 per cent of Ireland’s GNP and employs around 220,000 people.

In 2016, 10.5m overseas tourists visited Ireland and delivered revenue of £4.6bn.

However, Wakely said Tourism Ireland would “continue to monitor developments around Brexit closely”.

“Competitiveness and value for money are more important than ever this year, given currency fluctuations and the decline in the value of sterling,” she added.