Published on : Monday, January 29, 2018
Germany offers significant potential for Irish tourism, according to a new Tourism Ireland strategy launched by Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD.
The strategy sets out challenging and ambitious targets which will see the island of Ireland welcome 800,000 German visitors per year by 2021, representing growth of +20%; and will see revenue generated by holiday visitors increase by +27%, to €375 million per year.
Germany is the third-largest market for tourism to the island of Ireland and in 2017 we welcomed around 660,000 German visitors. In fact, we saw growth of +62% in revenue from German visitors to Ireland in the period 2012-2016; this strong growth was driven by effective marketing and sales activity, more direct flights, as well as positive macro-economic conditions.
New research was undertaken as part of this review of the German market, in order to deepen our understanding of our target audience in Germany and how they choose their holiday destination. Key findings included:
– the Ireland brand (or image) needs to be more distinctive, in order to motivate German travellers to choose Ireland over our competitor destinations;
– visual stimuli, and in particular inspiring video and images, are important motivators for Germans;
– Germans need a deeper knowledge of Ireland – about the breadth of things to see and do here, the costs, ease of access, our weather and also the quality of our food;
– Germans seek multiple recommendations (and reassurance) before booking and their main sources of information include friends and family, search engines and guidebooks;
– the internet is used extensively to plan and prepare for a holiday, although many holidaymakers continue to book in the traditional way, through the travel trade;
– the island of Ireland, and Northern Ireland in particular, will benefit from being more visible and topical; and
– Germans evaluate price early and often when planning their holiday, with some 53% checking out price comparison websites and online travel operators.
Minister Griffin said: “The continued strong growth in overseas visits to Ireland in 2017 is welcome news for all of us, and especially for communities across the country where tourism represents a large per centavos of economic activity and employment. The quality of our overseas marketing has helped to ensure that interest in visiting Ireland remains high among potential visitors in our top source markets like Germany. I want to compliment Tourism Ireland on this review and I have no doubt that their new marketing strategy will build on the very strong performance we have enjoyed from Germany in recent years.”
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Germany has performed extremely well for tourism to the island of Ireland in recent years and the future is undoubtedly bright. We believe that this is a market of considerable potential for Irish tourism over the coming years. However, we certainly don’t take the performance for granted; we need to adapt and respond to new opportunities to ensure that success continues. I am confident that our new, focused strategy will deliver on the challenging targets we have set for growth in German visitors, between now and 2021.”
The new strategy has been developed in close co-operation with Fáilte Ireland and Tourism NI, as well a wide range of industry partners, at home and in Germany. It has identified the market segments and opportunities which will drive strong growth from Germany to the island of Ireland over the coming four years.
Source:- Tourism Ireland
Tags: Tourism Ireland
|
||||
   
|
||||
   |
||||
 |
