Britain and Ireland — the tourism relationships

The British Irish Chamber of Commerce annual conference takes place in Dublin this week with a range of interesting topics being discussed under the theme ‘Shoulder to Shoulder — winning strategies for the global pitch’. Of course there is a small matter of the rugby match between Ireland and England to follow on Sunday.

On the tourism front, Tourism Ireland and our counterparts VisitBritain in the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year during the State Visit of President Higgins. Examples of collaboration include jointly working in markets like India and China to promote the new British Irish Visa Scheme. This Visa Scheme allows travellers to visit any part of the UK or Ireland on one visa from either country as opposed to two separate visas as was the case before. Also, we have just returned from Ascot from a new initiative called Explore GB. VisitBritain invited and hosted over 250 buyers from 40 countries from all continents. In addition to the 200+ UK suppliers, Tourism Ireland traveled with 16 suppliers from all parts of the island including Titanic Belfast, Killarney Hotels, Solus Lough Eske in Donegal and Waterford Crystal.

Clyde Auditorium

2014 was a very good year for tourism to the island of Ireland with visitors up 9%. In terms of numbers, Britain is Ireland’s most important tourism market. In 2014, 3.1million visitors from GB visited Ireland, an 8% increase or 230,000 additional visitors. It is estimated that they spent €970m, a 9% increase or €78m more than 2013. Figures for 9 months to end September show that Northern Ireland welcomed 900,000 British visitors spending £198m. Importantly, GB holidaymakers (as opposed to those visiting friends/relatives) grew by 12%.

Big Ben

From a British perspective, 2014 was a record year for tourism. Official figures show that 34.8m visitors spent £21.73bn. Ireland ranked as the fourth largest market for British tourism with about 2.4m visits. From a spend perspective, Ireland is the 7th most important market for Britain with £800m+ spent annually.

Selfridges Birmingham

In terms of connectivity, this winter there are over 216,000 one way weekly air seats between Britain and the island of Ireland. These flights are from 23 airports in Britain with just over 60% of the market serviced by Ryanair and Aer Lingus. In the peak summer season, there are over 200,000 one way weekly air seats. In terms of sea capacity, the northern, central and southern sea corridors have 204 sailings every week offering 43,000 car spaces and this summer will see over 240 sailings each week. Last year Irish Ferries put a new vessel on the Holyhead-Dublin route and this year Stena will also increase capacity on the same route.

Our latest brand tracking study carried out in Britain shows that Ireland enjoys high brand awareness in Britain with 70% of British holidaymakers interested in visiting Ireland in the future and 20% planning to visit in the next 12 months. Ireland ranks in the top 5 overseas destinations wish list that British holidaymakers intend to visit. Also, Northern Ireland has made big strides in conceptual appeal and more British people are interested and planning to visit in the future.

Tower of London

Our marketing programme in Britain this year is very exciting. Highlights include ITV airing a 6 part show hosted by Christine Bleakley on the Wild Atlantic Way, BBC 4 transmitting a four part series in March on the Irish landscape artist Du Noyer, ‘Scenic Car Tours’ of the Wild Atlantic Way and Causeway Coastal Route will feature in over 28 publications including Porsche Post and Classic Motoring and 41 British Travel trade will visit Ireland in April. We are also excited about the landmarks lighting green for St. Patricks Day including the London Eye, Nelsons Column, York City Walls and many others. All of these were extensively covered in British media last year.

London Eye

In conclusion, 2015 has got off to a great start with British visitors to Ireland up by over 10% in January. Best wishes to the British Irish Chamber of Commerce this week. As for the rugby — C’mon Ireland.