Tourism Ireland launches €1m campaign pushing Shannon airport to US tourists

Together Shannon Airport Group and Tourism Ireland are hosting events for travel, trade and media contacts in New York and Boston this week. Picture: Brendan Gleeson.

Tourism Ireland has launched a new €1m campaign to encourage American tourists to make use of direct flights from the United States to Shannon Airport.

The campaign will promote flights with Aer Lingus from Boston and New York as well as flights from Newark with United. It also seeks to highlight Shannon as a gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way.

Together Shannon Airport Group and Tourism Ireland are hosting events for travel, trade and media contacts in New York and Boston this week. 

As part of the many promotional events organised, six tourism enterprises from the Wild Atlantic Way are meeting with around 40 tour operators, alongside travel and diaspora journalists, in both Boston and New York.

Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland’s head of North America, said: "Our campaign includes an extensive and targeted programme of both trade and consumer promotions. We know from our research that there is significant pent-up demand among travellers here to return to Ireland."

She added that the campaign will seek to highlight the variety of experiences available to tourists along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Mary Considine, chief executive of The Shannon Airport Group, said: “Shannon Airport is the lifeblood of our region and we are proud of the role we play in supporting the business, aviation and tourism sectors that are so vital to the regional and national economy.” 

Shannon Airport recently underwent a rebranding to be renamed 'The Shannon Airport Group'.

Alongside a variety of events, the campaign will feature digital outdoor ads on billboards in Boston, New York, and New Jersey as well as ads on popular digital and social platforms.

Tourism Ireland is also working with travel websites such as Travel Spike, Dunhill Travel Deals and ShermansTravel to promote holiday packages which make use of Shannon Airport and the Wild Atlantic Way.

The Irish marketing body will run co-operative promotions with Aer Lingus and United, to highlight their direct flight services. The tourism campaign is set to run until the end of November.