St Patrick’s Day itself will see 4 Great Britain radio stations travel to Dublin and Belfast to savour the atmosphere of the celebrations – Radio city (Manchester); Magic (Manchester); BRMB (Birmingham) and Metro (Newcastle) will all broadcast live from Ireland with a combined audience of 1 ¾ million listeners.
In cooperation with Irish Ferries, we will be hosting
22 journalists from Britain on a car touring trip to the East Coast to launch the 2006 Irish Ferries programme. The Tourism Ireland team in London will also be co-operating with BMI Baby to promote a new route from Durham to Knock and plan to host 6 regional daily newspapers on a trip to Mayo this Spring.
Radio stations from Boston, New York,Washington and Los Angeles will visit Limerick and Dublin and broadcast interviews with members of the local tourism industry over St. Patrick’s week. There will also be a walking and cycling familiarisation trip for 25 travel agents in conjunction with Backroads.
In Canada Global TV’s popular home makeover show ‘Whose Design is it anyway?’ will film in Donegal and Dublin during April and will include some Fermanagh footage. The show has an audience reach of 26 million viewers. Three ‘Best of Ireland’ media presentations were held in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver as part of the Best of Ireland Roadshow, and a programme of radio broadcast interviews has been arranged for Irish suppliers on CFAX 1070FM Victoria, BC; CKWR Kitchener Waterloo, Ontario;CFRB1010 AM Toronto.
From Australia there will be a press trip with Gulf Air to publicise the new direct access into Dublin via Bahrain. The Getaway Travel Show with 2 million viewers will feature activities/holidays in Northern Ireland, the Midlands and the West and Sunrise and Channel 7 will also cover
St Patrick’s Day events.
In Germany SWR TV (regional TV station that broadcasts primarily in the South West of Germany) will accompany a local club that travels to Dublin every year for St Patrick’s Day. Germany’s SAT1 Saturday night sports programme will follow the progress of two German runners who will run from Malin Head to Mizen Head in March – see www.irlandrun.de. Eight German journalists will take part in a Catch & Cook trip to the Shannon region in May.
In France a press trip is planned in co-operation with Ryanair and Ireland’s Shannon Region to promote new access on the Nantes to Shannon route. The French team will also be bringing a group of 8 journalists to Connemara and the Aran Islands at the end of April and a group of
4 cycling media to Northern Ireland in May.
Tourism Ireland Italy has secured this year’s NEOS Press Trip to Midlands East & South East. NEOs is a prestigious Italian travel writers’ guild and 18 Italian travel writers will participate, many visiting Ireland for the very first time. Our Italian team are also cooperating with Ryanair and the Shannon Region to host a group of 7 media in support of the Rome - Shannon route. There will be a special Ireland supplement with the March edition of Bell’Europa glossy travel magazine, circulation 45,500. Stella del Sud, Italy’s leading travel show, broadcast to 2 million viewers on RAI 1, will cover St Patrick’s Festival and Dublin as a City Break destination.
Austria plans a group of 8 media to sample heritage, golf and cruising in April in co-operation with Blaguss and Aer Lingus. They will also co-operate with Lauda in May to bring in a group of 9 media to sample food, wellness and golf. Belgium plans a group of 6 media for a visit to the East Coast & Midlands in April.
Tourism Ireland in South Africa has negotiated with Isidingo, a popular daily soap viewed by 1.5 million viewers on SABC3TV to film 20 scenes for the soap in Wicklow in May. Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Film Board are co-operating with us to facilitate filming.
Tourism Ireland in India is working with the Irish Film Board to organise a Bollywood Film Directors location scouting trip to Ireland. Our partners at Fáilte Ireland and the NITB will assist in arranging this trip.
RYDER CUP
A major marketing programme is underway across markets to maximise the benefits of Ryder Cup 2006 and activity is being stepped up following the recent allocation of additional funds by the Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism,
John O’Donoghue,TD, and the Government.
In the area of publicity, all the Tourism Ireland overseas markets are working on visits for media groups and individuals. A special international media“Preview” event will be organised at the K-Club in April in conjunction with
East Coast and Midlands and Fáilte Ireland.
In the United States, for example, Tourism Ireland is targeting a number of key golf events, such as sponsorship of the Media Writers Event at Augusta. The
Tourism Ireland sponsorship of the ‘Nothing But Green’ promotion in conjunction with CBS will include airing
Tourism Ireland’s new TV ads during the coverage of a number of high profile PGA tour events between February and May - most notably the US Masters at Augusta.
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