Tourism Ireland aims to attract 20,000 visitors from the GCC to the Emerald Isle by 2013.
“We currently have 10,000-12,000 visitors from the UAE per year, which is not bad from a standing start,” said Tourism Ireland chief executive Paul O’Toole.
“We have been encouraged by these figures and now we have built awareness of Ireland – particularly with the travel agents and operators in this region – we want to start targeting the consumers and get Ireland into peoples’ mindsets.”
“Our aim is to attract at least 20,000 visitors from the region by 2012/2013 and we believe that the UAE and Saudi Arabia will be our key source markets.”
O’Toole was speaking to Arabian Travel News during a recent trip to Dubai where he and Tourism Ireland’s GCC representative, Gulf Reps, visited some of the tourism agency’s key travel trade partners including Al-Futtaim Travel, Dnata Holidays, Kanoo Travel and Airlink.
Gulf Reps has already run several fam trips to Ireland for the trade and more are planned, while Tourism Ireland ran a ‘How to sell Ireland’ supplement in the May edition of Arabian Travel News that was distributed at Arabian Travel Market earlier this month.
“We are never going to be mass market from the Gulf, but we are looking at niche markets and we will launch a series of promotions to target these in the coming months,” said O’Toole.
“We already have very established links with the equestrian field – this is where we have an affinity with the Arab culture – and our golf offering is proving popular.”
He said many of the region’s travel agencies had shown interest in promoting Ireland’s golf product – the country boasts three of the top 20 courses in the world – particularly to their corporate clients looking to send incentives groups to Ireland.
O’Toole said Ireland’s pastoral experience – the countryside – its friendly and welcoming people and its quirky boutiques were just some of the country’s key selling points.
“It’s also more accessible than some other European countries and it offers something a little bit different, including Irish hospitality,” he added.
Tourism Ireland GCC account manager Aiveen Ryan stressed that while Etihad Airways flew direct from Abu Dhabi to Dublin, there were 70 different airlinks from the Great Britain to Ireland as well as three ferry routes across the North Sea.
Aiveen noted that all business-class carrier Silverjet was keen to highlight how customers could fly from Dubai to London Luton with the carrier and then pick up direct flights with easyJet to several locations in Ireland, including Belfast in Northern Ireland.
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