Tourism Ireland welcomes announcement about re-opening of travel
Tourism Ireland gets ready to roll out the green carpet to international visitors
Tourism Ireland welcomes today’s announcement by the Irish Government about the re-opening of travel to Ireland.
Ireland’s adoption of the EU’s new Digital Covid Certificate, which will enable more seamless travel among EU member states, is good news for everyone in the tourism and hospitality industry. Ireland will begin the scheme on 19 July, meaning that travellers from EU member states bearing the pass – which attests that the holder has either been vaccinated, has had a negative test for COVID-19 or has had the virus – will then be able to visit Ireland without the need for a test or quarantining.
Tourism Ireland also welcomes the commitment to extend the Digital Covid Certificate to vaccinated visitors from other countries – including Great Britain and North America.
Tourism Ireland has been actively planning for the restart of international travel. The organisation is now ready to roll out a significant promotional kick-start campaign to entice and welcome back international visitors.
Niall Gibbons, Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s announcement is an extremely welcome and important step on the road to recovery for our industry. This will help protect thousands of jobs and livelihoods across the tourism industry. For the first time in many months, we can look to the future with optimism.
“We know from our research that there is significant pent-up demand among travellers in our overseas markets to return to the island of Ireland as soon as possible. However, we also know that there will be significant competition in the marketplace; every destination across the globe has experienced the impact of COVID-19 and will be seeking their share of the recovery. Our kick-start campaign will therefore need to punch through the noise and create an immediate desire to visit.
“Everyone at Tourism Ireland looks forward to getting back in full swing, to promote the island of Ireland as a safe, welcoming and ‘must-see’ destination across the world. Over the coming months, we will be working flat out, with all of our partners, to restore as much business as possible. Our message is that we can’t wait to roll out the green carpet and welcome back our overseas visitors.”
Since the pandemic began, Tourism Ireland has been undertaking an extensive – largely virtual or online – programme of activity, to keep Ireland alive in the hearts and minds of consumers around the world for future holidays. This is based on the insight that brands and destinations which maintain some level of activity during recessions or other downturns re-bound more strongly than those brands who go silent during the same period. The aim is to ensure that we are in the best possible place to immediately start converting business for tourism operators across the island of Ireland, as soon as the time is right.
A significant element of this programme of activity has included Tourism Ireland’s #FillYourHeartWithIreland social media campaign. This has achieved excellent engagement with the organisation’s fans and followers. It has delivered 1.8 billion impressions (or opportunities to see) on Tourism Ireland’s Facebook channels, with around 127 million views and 13 million engagements. There have been 328,000 engagements on Twitter, as well as 11 million engagements and 11 million ‘likes’ on Tourism Ireland’s Instagram channels.
