‘€420m benefit’ if Ireland can raise reputation ranking

A SLIGHT rise in Ireland’s reputation would result in tourism and foreign direct investment revenues rising by €420 million.

This is the claim of a study which measures the reputation of countries worldwide and shows Ireland is now ranked as the 17th most reputable country in the world — having fallen three places.

The study said that by improving Ireland’s reputation the country will see a direct rise in the numbers willing to support Ireland by investing, visiting, living and working in Ireland.

Managing director of Corporate Reputations in Ireland, Niamh Boyle, said that if Ireland’s reputation improves by 10%, moving from a current score of 63.5 to a score of 70, tourism and FDI revenues alone would increase by $570 million (€420m).

The ranking of the 53 countries was done by the public across the G8 nations. When Ireland was first measured in the CountryRep survey in 2009 it was placed in 11th position.

This year Irish people rated Ireland in 31st position, a drop of 12 places from last year, indicating that Ireland’s self worth is at an all-time low.

Canada has been ranked the most reputable country in the world, followed by Sweden and then Australia, while Iraq was found to be the least reputable state.

Ms Boyle said the results are worrying for Ireland from multiple perspectives.

“The G8 are our trading partners, important tourism markets and significant sources of foreign direct investment for Ireland. We need to be doing all that we can to reverse this current downward slide in our reputation,” she said.

Having a population that are regarded as ‘friendly and welcoming,’ was seen as the most important driver of country reputation, followed by ‘offering a safe environment to visitors and residents’ and ‘contributing to the global economy’.

“This makes it critical for countries worldwide to communicate their strengths across a range of characteristics, and not just focus on one,” said Ms Boyle. Countries such as Switzerland, Canada and New Zealand, which are all in the top five for reputation, all scored highly across these key attributes as well as other key drivers, such as ‘being an enjoyable country,’ ‘having a favourable environment for doing business,’ and ‘being run by an effective government’.

Ireland does not come in the top five in any of the 16 attributes, including ‘physical beauty,’ ‘effective government,’ ‘culture,’ ‘lifestyle,’ ‘technology’ and ‘business environment’.