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Tuesday April 26, 2011

Four In Five Americans Have Not Heard About Irish Crisis

Joe Byrne, head of Tourism Ireland in North America

Fears that Ireland's reputation overseas has been severely damaged by the economic crisis may be overblown.
New research shows that 82% of Americans have not heard any negative media coverage about Ireland.
The figure was revealed by the head of Tourism Ireland in North America, Joe Byrne, in an interview to be published in the next issue of Irish Connections magazine, due out in May.
A study was commissioned by Tourism Ireland in North America, amid fears that Ireland's brand as a desirable holiday destination was being hurt by the constant stream of bad economic news.
"The amount of publicity that Ireland received over the last couple of months about the banking crisis and the political crisis - it was really extensive," said Mr Byrne.
"You had everything from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to the Vanity Fair article, etc."
"We actually got a bit worried about it, and we said 'How is this impinging on the tourism brand?'
"We got so worried that we put our hands deep in our pockets to carry out some research at Omnibus research, and the findings were very encouraging."
82% of total respondents had not heard any negative coverage at all, or at least it didn't register with them.
Outbound travellers were slightly more likely to have heard the negative coverage at 23%, and this rose to 32% for those who were intending to travel to Ireland.
A significant majority of outbound travellers, 77%, felt that negative media coverage would have no impact on their travel plans.
Of the 18% who had heard the negative news, more felt it would have a positive influence on their plans than a negative.
That's because two thirds of those who were aware of the problems believed they were likely to get better value for money in Ireland as a result.
The study showed general interest in visiting Ireland is high, especially among young people.
Irish tourism bosses in North America are planning to exploit the upcoming visit of US President Barack Obama to Ireland, to highlight areas like ancestry tracing, golf and other tourism opportunities related to the itinerary of Mr and Mrs Obama.
"It will give us an opportunity to highlight some aspects of Ireland that we know our target market is interested in," said Joe Byrne.

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