St Patrick providing the perfect pitch for publicity and promotion for Ireland

St Patrick providing the perfect pitch for publicity and promotion for Ireland

International media embraces Ireland as St Patrick’s Festival kicks off


Fáilte Ireland has given a genuinely warm Irish welcome to 60 global media who have travelled from all over the world to Ireland this weekend to write, film, interview or tweet about the St Patrick’s Day Festival and Dublin.  The international media will experience for themselves the typical engaging and friendly welcome that Ireland is so famous for during their four days in Ireland. 

The international media covering the St Patrick’s celebrations will be active participants in the parade, meeting the performers in person and many are excited to be meeting this year’s special performer, the Grand Marshall, Brendan O’Carroll. 

During their stay, they will visit many attractions in the Capital and the surrounding countryside.  The broadcasters, print journalists and bloggers come from countries as diverse as the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, India, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Brazil and the Gulf States.  These travelling international media have both an overall traditional audience and social media reach collectively in the hundreds of millions.

Speaking in advance of St Patricks’ Day, Ciara Sugrue, Head of International Publicity with Fáilte Ireland, said –

“Ireland is uniquely placed - with a world famous event such as St Patrick’s Day – to have a celebration of Ireland’s traditional and current culture and personality which proves such an irresistible magnet for publicity and visitors internationally.  The St Patrick’s Festival gives Irish tourism a compelling reason to invite and host key foreign media to visit Ireland, absorb and be a part of the atmosphere and to enthuse about Ireland in their coverage as a must-visit destination just as the tourism season gets into gear.”

The importance of these press visits cannot be underestimated. Fáilte Ireland welcomed over 1,400 journalists to Ireland throughout 2014 with a combined circulation of over a billion – generating coverage worth an estimated €86 million in equivalent advertising value.  Last year, the St Patrick’s Festival alone generated publicity worth an equivalent advertising value of €7million and reaching an audience of over 300 million. 

Ms Sugrue continued:

“Seeing is believing and publicity trips for international writers and broadcasters give us an opportunity to ensure influential travel commentators get to sample Ireland up close and personal. We will ensure that all the overseas media who are with us now in Ireland for St Patrick’s Day will leave with the best impression possible and pass that message on to all their readers, viewers and listeners to motivate them to choose Ireland.” 


Follow us on Twitter @Fáilte_Ireland

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Alex Connolly – Head of Communications
086 7966320/01 8847884

Note for Editor

Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority, was established in 2003 to guide and promote tourism as a leading indigenous component of the Irish economy.

The tourism and hospitality industry employs an estimated 205,000 people and generates €6 billion in revenue a year. 

Fáilte Ireland arranges International Publicity programmes in conjunction with Tourism Ireland.

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