Marketing

Tourism Ireland rolls out Paddy’s Day campaign

09.02.2010
Irish tourism will piggyback on this year's global St Patrick’s Day celebrations with a number of iconic buildings around the world, including the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye, the Empire State Building and the CN Tower in Toronto, turning green for the day.

The initiative, which will involve the landmarks being lit up to appear green, was announced this morning by Tourism Ireland when it revealed plans for the biggest ever promotional programme of activities to highlight the island of Ireland in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day around the world.

“St Patrick’s Day is a truly unique opportunity to showcase our wonderful tourism product to a huge audience across the globe, as people instantly identify St Patrick’s Day with Ireland,” said Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland. “The agreement to allow us to ‘green’ such iconic buildings and attractions must be a first for any destination and clearly illustrates the goodwill that the Ireland brand generates across the world. We will use every opportunity to capitalise on Ireland’s heightened profile to showcase the uniqueness of a holiday on the island – the diversity of our culture and heritage and the friendliness of our people.”

Tourism Ireland’s €1 million St Patrick’s programme will span Britain, mainland Europe, North America, Australia as well as new and developing markets such as China, India and South Africa. “There will be saturation coverage of the island of Ireland across the airwaves, in newspapers and across digital media,” said Gibbons. “The St Patrick’s programme is an integral element of our overall €26 million first-half marketing drive aimed at restoring overseas tourism to growth in 2010.”