In Great Britain, Tourism Ireland was the main sponsor of the high-profile Mayor of London’s St Patrick’s celebrations. Events centred around the Holiday Village in Trafalgar Square and the Ireland Food Fair Exhibition in Covent Garden. A St. Patrick’s brunch for 400 media and guests was hosted in the Royal Opera House. Other events in Great Britain included sponsorship of the National Guild of Journalists lunch in Birmingham as well as other themed events in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester.
Tourism Ireland organised the Ireland presence at the British Travel Trade Fair recently with industry partners from across the island and will have a strong presence at several consumer product shows over St. Patrick’s week.
Irish food is the flavour of the month in the United States with a promotional drive to showcase Ireland’s reputation as a destination with culinary excellence. Six top Irish chefs are travelling to the United States to participate in a series of guest chef appearances in New York and Boston. Highlights include David McCann’s (Dromoland Castle) demonstrations at the New England Horticultural Show on St Patrick’s Day and Darina Allen’s (Ballymaloe) appearance as guest speaker at the food editor’s lunch in New York. The promotion will finish with a gourmet gala at the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston including Boston’s most celebrated chef Michael Schlow.
Also in the United States, Spring will be in the air with Tourism Ireland sponsoring the Philadelphia and New England Flower Shows. These will be complemented by an innovative promotion with 1800flowers and Delta Airlines with the potential to reach over 4 million consumers. On the retail side there will be an in-store promotion with REI clothing stores promoting Ireland’s walking product and leading luggage brand, Samsonite, will feature Ireland in-store displays and branding in all 200 Samsonite shops across the United States throughout March.
In Canada following the Best of Ireland 2006 Road Shows which saw 2 teams target key travel trade in 8 cities across Canada, there will be a St Patrick’s Week publicity blitz with themed press packs and e-zines distributed to prime print and broadcast outlets. By sponsoring key Montreal radio programmes, the Ireland holiday message should reach
1 million listeners. Tourism Ireland will also be the destination show sponsor at the Toronto Golf & Travel Show featuring a sweepstakes to the Ryder Cup and will be featured in all pre-show print and broadcast publicity activity. Tourism Ireland will exhibit at the Toronto Home & Garden Show as well as the Toronto and Vancouver Outdoor Adventure travel Shows.
In Australia, the Commonwealth Games celebrations in Melbourne commence mid-March. Tourism Ireland is part sponsoring the high-profile Irish Chamber of Commerce Breakfast which will be attended by
Olympian Dame Mary Peters, the British High Commissioner and the Irish Consul General in Australia. In Sydney, there will be various St Patrick’s Day events in partnership with Waterford Crystal with a focus on ‘Ireland South’, events include The Irish Writers’ Award - an awards ceremony to pick the Ireland travel writer of the year!
In France, Disneyland Resort Paris will go green in honour of St Patrick. Tourism Ireland has organised a highly visible and specifically constructed information village featuring the Regions of Ireland at the resort. Tourism Ireland will attend holiday fairs in several major cities with direct access to Ireland and also at product specific shows featuring EFL, walking, cycling, angling and heritage/culture. The Ryder Cup will be specifically promoted through a series of corporate business competitions in key French regions.
Other promotions by Tourism Ireland include: In Italy the Belfast City Tourism Showcase in Rome with Belfast Visitor Convention Bureau and easyjet; the BMT Naples Trade Show along with Irish partners and the One to One Business Tourism Show in Milan. Milan office will also go live with it’s online training programme for Travel agents on St Patrick’s Day. In the Netherlands the Ierland Vakantiebeurs/Ireland Consumer Day, the SITC Barcelona, B&B expo in Brussels and the TUR Consumer Holiday Show in Sweden will all take place this spring. In Germany a superfam and workshop for over 100 travel agents, a number of business tourism workshops and the Imex fair will also be taking place.
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