Tourism Ireland welcomes visit by French President Emmanuel Macron
Tourism Ireland welcomes today’s visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, which is good news for future tourism from France and a unique opportunity to convince potential holidaymakers in one of our largest tourism markets to visit Dublin and Ireland.
During his time here, the French President visited Trinity College and the Book of Kells, as well as Sweney’s Pharmacy on Lincoln Place, which featured in Joyce’s Ulysses. A large media contingent travelled here to cover the visit, bringing the story to millions of people across France. Tourism Ireland aims to inspire people to come and follow in President Macron’s footsteps. The organisation helped arrange the illumination of a number of Dublin landmarks in the colours of the French flag – including the Samuel Beckett Bridge, Trinity College and the Custom House.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “As we look forward to rebuilding tourism from France, today’s visit by President Macron is a wonderful opportunity to showcase Dublin to a huge audience of prospective holidaymakers across France. A large media contingent has travelled here to cover the visit, bringing the story to millions of people in France, and elsewhere around the world, and providing a truly unique opportunity to highlight Dublin and Ireland as a wonderful holiday destination. Tourism Ireland will take every opportunity to exploit the tourism potential from the extensive publicity around the visit.”
France is one of the top four markets for tourism to the island of Ireland. Before COVID-19, in 2019, we welcomed 557,000 French visitors to the island of Ireland, whose visits generated around €283 million in revenue.
