Tourism Ireland, together with a delegation of Irish tourism enterprises – including House of Waterford Crystal – recently undertook a three-day sales blitz to the United States.
David McCoy, House of Waterford Crystal with an American travel agent, during the Tourism Ireland sales blitz in West Lake Village.
The ‘Fill Your Heart with Ireland’ travel trade and media blitz saw 13 companies from Ireland, together with seven US tour operators, visit three key cities on the west coast of the United States – Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles (Westlake Village). Their busy schedule included a B2B event in each city – showcasing their products, experiences and Ireland to the American travel professionals, via a 60-minute interactive presentation on stage. It also included opportunities for networking with influential American travel and lifestyle journalists.
The west coast of the United States is an important source of visitors for the island of Ireland and the sales blitz provided a really valuable opportunity to highlight ease of access to Ireland (with direct flights from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles), as well as what’s new and exciting around Ireland.
“Tourism Ireland has prioritised North America, as a market which offers a strong return on investment, in terms of holiday visitors and expenditure,” said Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s Head of North America.
“This week’s ‘Fill Your Heart with Ireland’ sales blitz to Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles provides us with an excellent platform to kick-start our promotional effort for 2020 and to spread the word about the many great things to see and do right around the island of Ireland. We are confident that our extensive programme of high impact campaigns and promotions, targeting people with the greatest potential to travel to Ireland, will continue to grow US visitor numbers to the island of Ireland.”
This was the last of Tourism Ireland’s ‘Fill Your Heart with Ireland’ events for 2019. Previous events this year have visited Washington DC, Atlanta (Georgia), Boca Raton (Florida), Chicago, Dallas and Boston.
